[LI] Languages & UBI; lang tech in Africa; MT; missing words

Four items posted to LinkedIn relating to languages, one with economics and three with technology. Question about how UBI might affect language usage (posted September 2019) How might universal basic income (#UBI) affect use of various #languages? Question arises from hearing again the notions "can't get a #job speaking X" & "speaking Y improves job …

[LI] A 5- or 6-hour jobday (& why not “workday”)

Two items about shorter jobdays, each with comments why I don't use "workday" in this context. The first is a reply to a posting, and the second is a posting of an older article about a 2-year experiment, 2-years after it was ended (and people returned to the standard 8-hour jobday). Reply to a post …

“MEI,” “MIEL,” or “MINEL” languages?

As the proposal for an International Decade of Indigenous Languages moves toward consideration by the UN General Assembly,1 I'd like to return to an old discussion about ways of referring to a broader set of languages - including but not limited to those called indigenous - that in some ways face similar challenges. I've long …

LUL’d awake

Researching some details for a forthcoming post, I ran across a number of acronyms, several of which are used mainly in Europe, describing languages disadvantaged in terms of numbers of speakers (often referred to as minority languages), profile in education, status (official and social), and resources to take advantage of technology. The best known of …

[LI] Two meanings of “work” (3 items)

Three items posted to LinkedIn, calling attention to how the word "work" is used in two senses, often without apparent awareness of the difference or implications. In this, I'm arguing (again) that we need more clarity about what we do and don't mean when speaking/writing of "work," and that maybe that requires better elaborated terminology. …

Updated renewables & burnables Venn diagram

In a post last year entitled "Reframing 'renewable energy' & 'bioenergy'" I introduced several diagrams, including a simple Venn depiction of how various forms of bioenergy are found in the overlap of "renewables" and what is burned or combusted to release energy. I've made a few minor changes to that diagram (detailed at the end …

[LI] Four categories of “work” in Japanese & “ikigai”

"Work" in English can mean a number of things, but it is often used synonymously with job or employment. On a high level then, without getting into very specific kinds of activity, "work" is generally paid (a job) and when it isn't, it isn't called work, or is given a modifier to set it apart. …

[LI] Terminology relating to transcription & translation

For various work that involves recordings in one language and text in another, there is a shortcut for which there is no name. Three postings on LinkedIn relating to that and the lack of attention to transcription. "A terminological issue in cross-language qualitative methods," Don Osborn, Beyond Niamey, 28 September 2017 (posted September 2017) There …

Reimagining “language barrier”

When you read or hear "language barrier," or use the term yourself, what image comes to mind? Judging by the frequency of expressions like "breaking" or "overcoming" or even "dissolving" a language barrier, it's probably something like a wall. But wouldn't it be more accurate to think of that barrier as a gap, or perhaps …