Learning A Language

I was watching a vlog created by the Stalingrad Cowgirls last night. The video was published in 2012, 240p resolution and entirely in Finnish. I’m trying to learn the language and struggling immensely, and no way on earth would I have been able to understand what the girls were saying. Nor do I know anyone who would be able or even willing to translate the video for me.

50% Correct

Despite this, with the help of YouTube's auto translate technology I was able to understand most of the words that came out of their mouths. Some of the translations may not have been accurate, maybe a lot of them? Finnish is a notoriously difficult language to learn due to how words change when you combine them and a lot of complex colloquialisms. I’m not sure how much better it’s gotten over the years, but it’s been well known for a long time that Google Translate still struggles with the Finnish language once you go beyond basic sentences. Even if the translation is only 50% correct, I believe that’s still enough to get a reasonable understanding of the ideas the girls are attempting to convey.

Technology has a lot of flaws and I firmly believe we are heading towards an apocalyptic disaster straight out of Terminator or Blade Runner. I tend to consider myself quite pragmatic and see change for change’s sake as downright unhelpful which makes navigating through endless updates to software a nightmare.

The best benefit in my opinion is the ability to learn about nice people from all over the world. Once you reach escape velocity and leave the orbit of Instagram and Facebook in the dust, the internet has so many amazing places to explore; not the least of which is right here on Neocities. A few of my favorite sites include LaurenOnline, ACME Widgets, and Secret Garden.