Facial Expressions Show Language Barriers, Too
ScienceDaily (Aug. 16, 2009) — People from East Asia tend to have a tougher time than those from European countries telling the difference between a face that looks fearful versus surprised, disgusted versus angry, and now a new report published online on August 13th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, explains why. Rather than scanning evenly across a face as Westerners do, Easterners fixate their attention on the eyes.
"We show that Easterners and Westerners look at different face features to read facial expressions," said Rachael E. Jack of The University of Glasgow. "Westerners look at the eyes and the mouth in equal measure, whereas Easterners favor the eyes and neglect the mouth. This means that Easterners have difficulty distinguishing facial expressions that look similar around the eye region."
The discovery shows that human communication of emotion is a lot more complex than experts had believed, according to the researchers led by Roberto Caldara at The University of Glasgow. As a result, facial expressions that had been considered universally recognizable cannot be used to reliably convey emotion in cross-cultural situations.
The researchers studied cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions by recording the eye movements of 13 Western Caucasian and 13 East Asian people while they observed pictures of expressive faces and put them into categories: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted, angry, or neutral. The faces were standardized according to the so-called Facial Action Coding System (FACS) such that each expression displayed a specific combination of facial muscles typically associated with each feeling of emotion. They then compared how accurately participants read those facial expressions using their particular eye movement strategies.
It turned out that Easterners focused much greater attention on the eyes and made significantly more errors than Westerners did. The cultural specificity in eye movements that they show is probably a reflection of cultural specificity in facial expressions, Jack said. Their data suggest that while Westerners use the whole face to convey emotion, Easterners use the eyes more and mouth less.
A survey of Eastern versus Western emoticons certainly supports that idea.
"Emoticons are used to convey different emotions in cyberspace as they are the iconic representation of facial expressions," Jack said. "Interestingly, there are clear cultural differences in the formations of these icons." Western emoticons primarily use the mouth to convey emotional states, e.g. : ) for happy and : ( for sad, she noted, whereas Eastern emoticons use the eyes, e.g. ^.^ for happy and ;_; for sad.
"In sum," the researchers wrote, "our data demonstrate genuine perceptual differences between Western Caucasian and East Asian observers and show that FACS-coded facial expressions are not universal signals of human emotion. From here on, examining how the different facets of cultural ideologies and concepts have diversified these basic social skills will elevate knowledge of human emotion processing from a reductionist to a more authentic representation. Otherwise, when it comes to communicating emotions across cultures, Easterners and Westerners will find themselves lost in translation."
The researchers include Rachael E. Jack, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK; Caroline Blais, Universite´ de Montreal, Montreal, Canada; Christoph Scheepers, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK; Philippe G. Schyns, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK; and Roberto Caldara, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK.
Traducción jurada en Guatemala inglés - español y otros idiomas desde 1992, exactitud, rapidez, confidencialidad, llevamos la traducción a su oficina o residencia; asimismo, capacitamos mediante diplomados 100% en línea en: 1) Formación para estudiantes de traducción jurada, b) Actualización profesional para el traductor jurado en servicio, c) Inglés legal internacional para abogados y personal jurídico; solicite información a ccptradprof@gmail.com
13 agosto 2009
What's in a word?
What’s in a Word?
Language may shape our thoughts.
By Sharon Begley | NEWSWEEK
Published Jul 9, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Jul 20, 2009
When the Viaduct de Millau opened in the south of France in 2004, this tallest bridge in the world won worldwide accolades. German newspapers described how it "floated above the clouds" with "elegance and lightness" and "breathtaking" beauty. In France, papers praised the "immense" "concrete giant." Was it mere coincidence that the Germans saw beauty where the French saw heft and power? Lera Boroditsky thinks not.
A psychologist at Stanford University, she has long been intrigued by an age-old question whose modern form dates to 1956, when linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf asked whether the language we speak shapes the way we think and see the world. If so, then language is not merely a means of expressing thought, but a constraint on it, too. Although philosophers, anthropologists, and others have weighed in, with most concluding that language does not shape thought in any significant way, the field has been notable for a distressing lack of empiricism—as in testable hypotheses and actual data.
That's where Boroditsky comes in. In a series of clever experiments guided by pointed questions, she is amassing evidence that, yes, language shapes thought. The effect is powerful enough, she says, that "the private mental lives of speakers of different languages may differ dramatically," not only when they are thinking in order to speak, "but in all manner of cognitive tasks," including basic sensory perception. "Even a small fluke of grammar"—the gender of nouns—"can have an effect on how people think about things in the world," she says.
As in that bridge. In German, the noun for bridge, Brücke, is feminine. In French, pont is masculine. German speakers saw prototypically female features; French speakers, masculine ones. Similarly, Germans describe keys (Schlüssel) with words such as hard, heavy, jagged, and metal, while to Spaniards keys (llaves) are golden, intricate, little, and lovely. Guess which language construes key as masculine and which as feminine? Grammatical gender also shapes how we construe abstractions. In 85 percent of artistic depictions of death and victory, for instance, the idea is represented by a man if the noun is masculine and a woman if it is feminine, says Boroditsky. Germans tend to paint death as male, and Russians tend to paint it as female.
Language even shapes what we see. People have a better memory for colors if different shades have distinct names—not English's light blue and dark blue, for instance, but Russian's goluboy and sinly. Skeptics of the language-shapes-thought claim have argued that that's a trivial finding, showing only that people remember what they saw in both a visual form and a verbal one, but not proving that they actually see the hues differently. In an ingenious experiment, however, Boroditsky and colleagues showed volunteers three color swatches and asked them which of the bottom two was the same as the top one. Native Russian speakers were faster than English speakers when the colors had distinct names, suggesting that having a name for something allows you to perceive it more sharply. Similarly, Korean uses one word for "in" when one object is in another snugly (a letter in an envelope), and a different one when an object is in something loosely (an apple in a bowl). Sure enough, Korean adults are better than English speakers at distinguishing tight fit from loose fit.
In Australia, the Aboriginal Kuuk Thaayorre use compass directions for every spatial cue rather than right or left, leading to locutions such as "there is an ant on your southeast leg." The Kuuk Thaayorre are also much more skillful than English speakers at dead reckoning, even in unfamiliar surroundings or strange buildings. Their language "equips them to perform navigational feats once thought beyond human capabilities," Boroditsky wrote on Edge.org.
Science has only scratched the surface of how language affects thought. In Russian, verb forms indicate whether the action was completed or not—as in "she ate [and finished] the pizza." In Turkish, verbs indicate whether the action was observed or merely rumored. Boroditsky would love to run an experiment testing whether native Russian speakers are better than others at noticing if an action is completed, and if Turks have a heightened sensitivity to fact versus hearsay. Similarly, while English says "she broke the bowl" even if it smashed accidentally (she dropped something on it, say), Spanish and Japanese describe the same event more like "the bowl broke itself." "When we show people video of the same event," says Boroditsky, "English speakers remember who was to blame even in an accident, but Spanish and Japanese speakers remember it less well than they do intentional actions. It raises questions about whether language affects even something as basic as how we construct our ideas of causality."
Begley is NEWSWEEK's science editor.
Find this article at http://www.newsweek.com/id/205985
Language may shape our thoughts.
By Sharon Begley | NEWSWEEK
Published Jul 9, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Jul 20, 2009
When the Viaduct de Millau opened in the south of France in 2004, this tallest bridge in the world won worldwide accolades. German newspapers described how it "floated above the clouds" with "elegance and lightness" and "breathtaking" beauty. In France, papers praised the "immense" "concrete giant." Was it mere coincidence that the Germans saw beauty where the French saw heft and power? Lera Boroditsky thinks not.
A psychologist at Stanford University, she has long been intrigued by an age-old question whose modern form dates to 1956, when linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf asked whether the language we speak shapes the way we think and see the world. If so, then language is not merely a means of expressing thought, but a constraint on it, too. Although philosophers, anthropologists, and others have weighed in, with most concluding that language does not shape thought in any significant way, the field has been notable for a distressing lack of empiricism—as in testable hypotheses and actual data.
That's where Boroditsky comes in. In a series of clever experiments guided by pointed questions, she is amassing evidence that, yes, language shapes thought. The effect is powerful enough, she says, that "the private mental lives of speakers of different languages may differ dramatically," not only when they are thinking in order to speak, "but in all manner of cognitive tasks," including basic sensory perception. "Even a small fluke of grammar"—the gender of nouns—"can have an effect on how people think about things in the world," she says.
As in that bridge. In German, the noun for bridge, Brücke, is feminine. In French, pont is masculine. German speakers saw prototypically female features; French speakers, masculine ones. Similarly, Germans describe keys (Schlüssel) with words such as hard, heavy, jagged, and metal, while to Spaniards keys (llaves) are golden, intricate, little, and lovely. Guess which language construes key as masculine and which as feminine? Grammatical gender also shapes how we construe abstractions. In 85 percent of artistic depictions of death and victory, for instance, the idea is represented by a man if the noun is masculine and a woman if it is feminine, says Boroditsky. Germans tend to paint death as male, and Russians tend to paint it as female.
Language even shapes what we see. People have a better memory for colors if different shades have distinct names—not English's light blue and dark blue, for instance, but Russian's goluboy and sinly. Skeptics of the language-shapes-thought claim have argued that that's a trivial finding, showing only that people remember what they saw in both a visual form and a verbal one, but not proving that they actually see the hues differently. In an ingenious experiment, however, Boroditsky and colleagues showed volunteers three color swatches and asked them which of the bottom two was the same as the top one. Native Russian speakers were faster than English speakers when the colors had distinct names, suggesting that having a name for something allows you to perceive it more sharply. Similarly, Korean uses one word for "in" when one object is in another snugly (a letter in an envelope), and a different one when an object is in something loosely (an apple in a bowl). Sure enough, Korean adults are better than English speakers at distinguishing tight fit from loose fit.
In Australia, the Aboriginal Kuuk Thaayorre use compass directions for every spatial cue rather than right or left, leading to locutions such as "there is an ant on your southeast leg." The Kuuk Thaayorre are also much more skillful than English speakers at dead reckoning, even in unfamiliar surroundings or strange buildings. Their language "equips them to perform navigational feats once thought beyond human capabilities," Boroditsky wrote on Edge.org.
Science has only scratched the surface of how language affects thought. In Russian, verb forms indicate whether the action was completed or not—as in "she ate [and finished] the pizza." In Turkish, verbs indicate whether the action was observed or merely rumored. Boroditsky would love to run an experiment testing whether native Russian speakers are better than others at noticing if an action is completed, and if Turks have a heightened sensitivity to fact versus hearsay. Similarly, while English says "she broke the bowl" even if it smashed accidentally (she dropped something on it, say), Spanish and Japanese describe the same event more like "the bowl broke itself." "When we show people video of the same event," says Boroditsky, "English speakers remember who was to blame even in an accident, but Spanish and Japanese speakers remember it less well than they do intentional actions. It raises questions about whether language affects even something as basic as how we construct our ideas of causality."
Begley is NEWSWEEK's science editor.
Find this article at http://www.newsweek.com/id/205985
14 enero 2009
LECCION INAUGURAL 2009
LECCION INAUGURAL
TRADPROF 2009
1. "Diferencias Conceptuales entre la Traducción e Interpretación"
Expositora: Doris Caspani, Intérprete Certificada de Corte en Kentucky y Tennessee, EUA, miembro de NAJIT.
a) Marco conceptual de ambos procesos
b) Modos de interpretación
c) Técnicas de Traducción
d) La actividad traductora actualmente en EUA
Sábado 17 de enero, 2009, local 1-16, Edificio Reforma Montúfar, Avenida La Reforma 12-01 zona 10.
Inversión: Q240.00
www.serviciostradprof.com
PERFIL ACADÉMICO DE LA CONFERENCISTA:
Doris M. Caspani was born in Austria and grew up in the Netherlands and Venezuela. She obtained a diploma in Hotel Business from Bad Gleichenberg in Styria, Austria and graduated with a B. A. from the College of Mount St. Joseph on the Ohio. After more than twenty years of responsible administrative experience in areas such as promotional, administrative assistant and executive secretary with major international and import-export companies, airline, hotel and food industries in Austria, Venezuela, Colombia, Belgium, Germany, and the United States and eight years in teaching Foreign Languages, she embarked almost ten years ago in medical and judiciary interpretation and obtained her State of Tennessee and State of Kentucky Court Interpreter Certification in 2006 and 2007, respectively. She is fluent in German, Spanish, English and French and has working knowledge of Italian and Dutch. Currently a NAJIT –National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators- and other national and international translator and interpreter organizations member.
TRADPROF 2009
1. "Diferencias Conceptuales entre la Traducción e Interpretación"
Expositora: Doris Caspani, Intérprete Certificada de Corte en Kentucky y Tennessee, EUA, miembro de NAJIT.
a) Marco conceptual de ambos procesos
b) Modos de interpretación
c) Técnicas de Traducción
d) La actividad traductora actualmente en EUA
Sábado 17 de enero, 2009, local 1-16, Edificio Reforma Montúfar, Avenida La Reforma 12-01 zona 10.
Inversión: Q240.00
www.serviciostradprof.com
PERFIL ACADÉMICO DE LA CONFERENCISTA:
Doris M. Caspani was born in Austria and grew up in the Netherlands and Venezuela. She obtained a diploma in Hotel Business from Bad Gleichenberg in Styria, Austria and graduated with a B. A. from the College of Mount St. Joseph on the Ohio. After more than twenty years of responsible administrative experience in areas such as promotional, administrative assistant and executive secretary with major international and import-export companies, airline, hotel and food industries in Austria, Venezuela, Colombia, Belgium, Germany, and the United States and eight years in teaching Foreign Languages, she embarked almost ten years ago in medical and judiciary interpretation and obtained her State of Tennessee and State of Kentucky Court Interpreter Certification in 2006 and 2007, respectively. She is fluent in German, Spanish, English and French and has working knowledge of Italian and Dutch. Currently a NAJIT –National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators- and other national and international translator and interpreter organizations member.
30 diciembre 2008
Legal terminology "finding"
finding : (sust,) conclusión, hallazgo, resultado.
(noun) a decision by a court or tribunal regarding a question of fact.
"The court's finding was in our favor."
Related terms
finding of fact - a finding of fact is a determination made by the fact finder (usually a judge or a jury) based on the evidence, regarding an issue involving the facts of a case, raised by one party to a case. "The defendant changed his plea to guilty after the court found as a fact that he had been present at the scene of the crime."
findings/conclusions of law- a finding of law is a determination of law reached by the court based on the facts found. "Based on the evidence before it, the court found at law that the company had indeed engaged in anti-competitive practices designed to maintain its monopoly position."
(noun) a decision by a court or tribunal regarding a question of fact.
"The court's finding was in our favor."
Related terms
finding of fact - a finding of fact is a determination made by the fact finder (usually a judge or a jury) based on the evidence, regarding an issue involving the facts of a case, raised by one party to a case. "The defendant changed his plea to guilty after the court found as a fact that he had been present at the scene of the crime."
findings/conclusions of law- a finding of law is a determination of law reached by the court based on the facts found. "Based on the evidence before it, the court found at law that the company had indeed engaged in anti-competitive practices designed to maintain its monopoly position."
AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSLATION 3-DAY TAPIT MEGA WORKSHOP
If you are interested in translating tapes, CD’s, or other audio media, this is for you !!!
AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSLATION
3-DAY TAPIT MEGA WORKSHOP
Jan 17-18-19, 2009
Belmont University, Nashville, TN
Hands-on practice. Small group - lots of interaction and critique with
Forensic TT Specialist Judith Kenigson Kristy
Approved for 12 FL&3 General CEU credits for TN Certified and Registered Interpreters.
Registrants must attend all 3 days
Go to the TAPIT website (www.tapit.org) for details and registration form.
AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSLATION
3-DAY TAPIT MEGA WORKSHOP
Jan 17-18-19, 2009
Belmont University, Nashville, TN
Hands-on practice. Small group - lots of interaction and critique with
Forensic TT Specialist Judith Kenigson Kristy
Approved for 12 FL&3 General CEU credits for TN Certified and Registered Interpreters.
Registrants must attend all 3 days
Go to the TAPIT website (www.tapit.org) for details and registration form.
22 diciembre 2008
Feliz Navidad y Venturoso Año Nuevo 2009
¡TRADPROF le desea bendiciones de Nuestro Señor para esta Navidad, el año 2009 y siempre!
"Que busques a Cristo, que encuentres a Cristo, que ames a Cristo. Son tres etapas clarísimas. ¿Has intentado por lo menos, vivir la primera?"
(San Josemaría Escrivá)
"Que busques a Cristo, que encuentres a Cristo, que ames a Cristo. Son tres etapas clarísimas. ¿Has intentado por lo menos, vivir la primera?"
(San Josemaría Escrivá)
13 diciembre 2008
Saving money on translators and interpreters.
Saving money on translators and interpreters
In the latest issue of The Linguist, the journal of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, there is a snippet from an article that appeared in the Daily Mirror a few weeks ago concerning the interpreter appointed by Wigan Athletic for their star Egyptian striker, currently with them on loan, Amr Zaki. The football club discovered that the interpreter wasn't up to the job. Not surprising really, as they had appointed him after finding him selling pies on a stall and being told that he was fluent in Arabic.
Wigan Athletic is in the top football league, and players of this calibre earn several hundred thousand pounds a year. Manager Steve Bruce moved to Wigan last year for a reported salary of £3m a year including bonuses, according to an article at the time. The club's hospitality packages start at £1250 per person, and there is a package that costs twice as much (see here). Yet the club didn't see fit to shell out the going rate for a professional interpreter. Incredible!
Stories like this are all too common. Companies that spend a fortune on entertaining clients, and that wouldn't dream of appointing trainee or unqualified accountants or medical staff, think it's perfectly ok to get translations done by someone's daughter, brother-in-law or other willing volunteer. In a document produced by the Institute of Translation and Interpreting, there are some translation horror stories. A US manufacturer of radiation equipment didn't bother to translate instructions into French, assuming that technicians would all be fluent in English; they weren't and some patients died of radiation overdoses. In April 2007 the prime ministers of France and Canada held a memorial service to honour Canadian soldiers who had died in France during the First World War. Journalists spotted that historical plaques put up nearby were riddled with grammar and spelling errors, and it turned out that they had been translated by well-meaning but unqualified volunteers.
In the latest issue of The Linguist, the journal of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, there is a snippet from an article that appeared in the Daily Mirror a few weeks ago concerning the interpreter appointed by Wigan Athletic for their star Egyptian striker, currently with them on loan, Amr Zaki. The football club discovered that the interpreter wasn't up to the job. Not surprising really, as they had appointed him after finding him selling pies on a stall and being told that he was fluent in Arabic.
Wigan Athletic is in the top football league, and players of this calibre earn several hundred thousand pounds a year. Manager Steve Bruce moved to Wigan last year for a reported salary of £3m a year including bonuses, according to an article at the time. The club's hospitality packages start at £1250 per person, and there is a package that costs twice as much (see here). Yet the club didn't see fit to shell out the going rate for a professional interpreter. Incredible!
Stories like this are all too common. Companies that spend a fortune on entertaining clients, and that wouldn't dream of appointing trainee or unqualified accountants or medical staff, think it's perfectly ok to get translations done by someone's daughter, brother-in-law or other willing volunteer. In a document produced by the Institute of Translation and Interpreting, there are some translation horror stories. A US manufacturer of radiation equipment didn't bother to translate instructions into French, assuming that technicians would all be fluent in English; they weren't and some patients died of radiation overdoses. In April 2007 the prime ministers of France and Canada held a memorial service to honour Canadian soldiers who had died in France during the First World War. Journalists spotted that historical plaques put up nearby were riddled with grammar and spelling errors, and it turned out that they had been translated by well-meaning but unqualified volunteers.
11 diciembre 2008
Legal terminology "integrated"
integrated
(adjective) to make a whole by bringing parts together, to unify.
"After some time, the new procedures were fully integrated into the work routine."
Synonyms
incorporated: "The new guidelines incorporated the changes in reporting routines."
assimilated: "New reporting procedures assimilated legislative changes into current practices."
Word combinations
integrated agreement - an agreement adopted as a final and complete expression of that which is agreed between 2 parties. "The seller argued that the buyer could not rely on promises not contained in the integrated agreement."
Other use
We also use integrate in the sense of opening something to people of all races or ethnic groups without restriction - to desegregate. "To comply with law, the company took steps to to diversify and integrate the workplace."
(adjective) to make a whole by bringing parts together, to unify.
"After some time, the new procedures were fully integrated into the work routine."
Synonyms
incorporated: "The new guidelines incorporated the changes in reporting routines."
assimilated: "New reporting procedures assimilated legislative changes into current practices."
Word combinations
integrated agreement - an agreement adopted as a final and complete expression of that which is agreed between 2 parties. "The seller argued that the buyer could not rely on promises not contained in the integrated agreement."
Other use
We also use integrate in the sense of opening something to people of all races or ethnic groups without restriction - to desegregate. "To comply with law, the company took steps to to diversify and integrate the workplace."
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