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Culture Shock

pete

Brassica Oleracea
Staff member
Administrator
Well, a little shocking, I suppose.

I've been researching Yanagisawa stuff over the last couple of months and I've also had to register on some non-English websites to get at pictures or text. My primary language is American English. I did take Latin in high school and college, so I can read a bunch of Romantic languages (Italian, French, etc.) to a certain extent. I know some spoken Japanese because of my exposure to subbed anime. If I come across German and it looks interesting, I'll ask Helen to help. If I come across something in Japanese, I'll ask kymarto. Today, though, I tried to register on a Russian web forum, http://saxforum.org. That was ... interesting.

Saxforum.org uses vBulletin, which is what the WF uses. One of the things you can do -- if the feature is turned on -- is that you can choose a language you want and all the menu items and such will show up in your language. Saxforum.org has this feature. I turned that on first. I was able to use Google Translate to make out the rest of the registration stuff, except for one thing: the question to prove you're a human.

* First question, translated, was, "Saxophone contrary." I do know that a lot of languages use "contra," as in "contralto," for "baritone." That didn't work.
* Second question, translated, was, "A bird in the hand is??? in the sky?" OK, I'll translate that to, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." "Two" didn't work.
* Third question, translated, was, "To add twenty-seven eight five minutes." I think the forum just puked at me. I hit refresh.

Ah. A question that translates intelligently: "Which city is older, Moscow or St. Petersburg?" I know that answer: Moscow. It didn't work.

OK, I 'll search for a mod or admin I could just e-mail and see if I could get help. I found one and clicked his name. "I'm sorry, but you need to be logged in to use that feature." I go to the "Registration Feedback" forum. Marked "private." I decided on a technical solution: hey, maybe Google Chrome's just screwing up the form. I'll try it in Firefox. Still doesn't work. Then it comes to me: I have to type in Russian.* Ah. Well, I don't have a Cyrillic keyboard, but at least I can copy "Moscow" (in Russian) from the question, itself, and paste it in. Worky.

* Sigh *

All this to get at a 1987ish Yanagisawa catalog ....


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* There's an old Clint Eastwood movie called Firefox. There's a climatic scene where Clint has to remind himself to think in Russian. The irony was not wasted on me.
 
I believe that my wife can help you with some of this. She is a native Russian speaker. Ypu can E-Mail her through me. Just P.M. me here and I'll get you connected to her.
 
Just a thought...did you answer in English or Russian? Maybe the "bot" is expecting Russian. If it's expecting English then may still need to translate it - and perhaps the answer is lost there somewhere (in translation).
 
Just a thought...did you answer in English or Russian? Maybe the "bot" is expecting Russian. If it's expecting English then may still need to translate it - and perhaps the answer is lost there somewhere (in translation).
Then it comes to me: I have to type in Russian. Ah. Well, I don't have a Cyrillic keyboard, but at least I can copy "Moscow" (in Russian) from the question, itself, and paste it in. Worky.
:p:D
 
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