Saturday 20 January 2018
Lost in Translation - Liliana Segre and 75190
We live in strange times.
Computers do strange things.
Often they seem to know what we want before we know what we want.
And other times, for reasons we may never fathom, they don't appear to have a clue.
This morning I was reminded of the behaviour of blogger-comments and the fact that I and others have had to click up to ten times, as someone has said.
I was reminded too of the several emails that friends and relatives have sent here that didn't arrive.
But now, my patience is being tried.
Yes, I'm sorry to say it only gets worse.
"You know who's" translation button is now playing up.
This morning I saw a report on the TV news about a courageous and exemplary Italian lady - a senator no less - who was deservedly awarded a high honour in Italy for keeping children informed of the Holocaust.
Liliana Segre's story interested me, and I thought I could use it in connection with my Italian language studies.
I decided would translate some internet paragraphs into English using the famous translation button.
Today, no.
The sulks?
Today nothing moves.
The Italian version won't budge. It is frozen. That's it.
And so I went to Wales. And there I found the gist of the story in yesterday's internet edition of the 'Rhyl Prestatyn and Abergele Journal'.
And I was reminded of my happy childhood in Wales before I was uprooted.
I remembered how a man showed a blue number on his forearm. And how he explained what it was.
Liliana Segre has a number on her arm. She shows her tattooed arm to children in schools.
Hopefully the so-called translation button will soon be shamed into action and provide the service it is supposed to provide.
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You are being very thoughtful this morning Gwil. These computer frustrations become something of minor trials when we think at last we know how the computer works and it is becoming second nature it throws these at us. Like the computer is saying (or Google is saying) "we gotcha, ha ha, and we are in control". Liliana Segre's story also interests me and at some point later I will endeavour to find it.
ReplyDeleteThank you Rachel. I shall try it again later. Maybe it's just a glitch. ;-)
DeleteInteresting that I have click several times to comment on my own blog. As you know my PIR blog was nearly taken down completely. It's a kind of self censorship that's being built.
DeleteI believe we are all finding blogger response slow; one click on a comment will take at least 30 seconds before the comment appears. In case you haven't found it, my new blog is on racheldubois.blogspot. I had to start all over again.
DeleteThank you. I will dash over in a few minutes. Hopefully ;-)
DeleteYou've disappeared again.
DeleteI'm glad you mentioned this Gwil. We must never forget.
ReplyDeleteI hope the translation button is working now, or an alternative choice can be the old school dictionary ;)
Greetings Maria x
p.s. I had to write my comment all over again because it disappeared while proof-reading and correcting it! Also, as you mention, it takes a few seconds to publish.
Grazie. I saw the lady interviewed on the news. She looks wonderful for her age. A remarkable and inspiring story she has to tell. Her "will to live" is what saved her on the death march to the camps.
DeleteIt' taking about 20 secs. Perhaps it has to go through a filter first. Maybe their are weeding out the undesirables? Who decides who they are? Another computer I suppose.
I've now managed to get the translation and the original text of her 'una testimonianza' as it's called. It begins: mi chiamo liliana segre, sono nata a milano nel 1930 . . .
DeleteCiao, g
__ Pushing the buttons of my personal computer, my brain-memory too, has become quite slow.
ReplyDelete__ Facts are history; these numbered tattoos; facts of hate.
in our self teaching
we must balance histories
igen vagy nem
_m
The computer says yes or no.
DeleteOn the scales a feather or a butcher's thumb.
Journalism: different stories formed by one fact, that needle on the scale.
Delete... then, there is always a thumb.
DeleteI remember when I was a child being dragged along to the various shops, in the days when there were various shops in the high street of every small town, and in one of the shops, a butcher, a fishmonger, or a grocer, a customer asking the shopkeeper to weigh something again and this time without his thumb on the scale. It was an early lesson on how the business world works, and then when grew older I discovered the thumb on the scale applies in other fields too.
DeleteI have just had to log on three times as the first two it just said 'server not found'. Very frustrating.
ReplyDeleteCan I ask a question Gwil:
Our book group has been reading Paddy Leigh Fermor's A Time of Gifts. In it he says as a young man he was almost arrested in Vienna as they thought he was a saccharine smuggler. Can you explain why they would wish to smuggle this and what it was exactly please?
I entered the words saccharine smuggling and Vienna and found that it was smuggled from Hungary and Slovakia. I cant imagine what they needed it for other than as a sweetener. In the Orson Wells film the 3rd Man he deals in a substance on the black market by pretending it's penicillin. Maybe it was the saccharin? It's a very long time since I read the Graham Greene book the 3rd Man and I can't recall what it was.
DeleteThat sounds like a great way to improve your Italian - I read Focus magazine in Italian, which is full of interesting articles about science and current affairs etc
ReplyDeleteThat interesting. I'll see if it's available here. At the moment I'm reading an Italian-German magazine called Adesso which I think must be similar. It's published monthly by SpotlightVerlag who also publish Spotlight (for English language learners) , Ecoute (French) and Ecos (Spanish).
DeleteYes, I agree with Crafty Green Poet, Focus is a very good magazine, I think you will enjoy reading it. x
DeleteI have downloaded the app: Big Italy Focus. It is in English and Italian and each story about one paragraph in lungo! E gratis! Ciao, G.
Delete