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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| canada38 Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5494 days ago 304 posts - 417 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 1 of 22 15 November 2009 at 6:44am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm assuming (and probably safely so) that more scientific research is published in
English than other languages; including research done by people in non-English speaking countries. Have any of you come across a lot of material published in other languages? A second thought, how do you think this will change over the next 20-50 years? My guess is that French has already lost its influence in science, and German could as well. I can see Spanish improving, but I don't see Mandarin gaining much ground. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6767 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 2 of 22 15 November 2009 at 10:08am | IP Logged | ||
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It depends on the field, I suppose, and who the audience is for. Yesterday I went to browse the periodicals section
at the Aichi Prefectural library, and there really is quite a large selection of journals in Japanese for certain topics — science and engineering especially, with a surprising number of energy journals. Speaking in a professional capacity, translating technical Japanese can be a challenge because a lot of Japanese concepts and inventions don't even have English names yet. Japan also has a lot of scholarly publications for the general public, including a monthly science magazine called Newton and a Japanese edition of National Geographic. French may not regain its position as the world most important language any time soon, but I'm sure its publishing industry will remain robust. Come to think of it, many or most Canadian scientific journals are bilingual, aren't they? For personal reading, I prefer France's Science & Vie to all English-language science magazines save one. I don't know when Mandarin will become a global language of science, but I'm sure there's quite a bit published for Chinese readers among the hundreds of universities and scientific institutes in China, and they (like Japan) seem to place a lot of value in home-grown technology and research as a way of staying competitive. Edited by Captain Haddock on 15 November 2009 at 10:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6551 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 3 of 22 15 November 2009 at 12:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Several countries, France, Germany, Russia, Japan have journals in their language that are valued by the scientific community but most publications 'worth their salt' are in English because of the peer-reviewed process. Leaders in a field come from several countries and one wants the best possible peer review -- therefore English is de rigeur ;).
The areas where English is not leading are research journals around a history or language where the topic suggest a more natural language to use. Even so, these publications are often bilingual with articles being written in one OR the other language - one language is topical and the other one is almost always English. Edited by zenmonkey on 15 November 2009 at 12:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| parasitius Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5997 days ago 220 posts - 323 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Cantonese, Polish, Spanish, French | Message 4 of 22 19 November 2009 at 5:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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When my friend went from Japan -> USA to attend a technical conference (peer reviewed
journal presentations and such) that was all in English, with people from 100's of countries in attendance, I asked him if there were similar conferences where people would come from hundreds or at least tens of countries and speak in German, French, Spanish, Mandarin or other top languages. I assumed that they obviously exist when I asked the question -- but he shocked me by saying no such thing exists. It's really depressing living in this century at times. It kind of ruined my day and made me want to shot myself finding that out. Every "language" will soon been a "local dialect" and those of us who take interest in them will be seen as nothing more than a bunch of "kooks". 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5520 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 5 of 22 19 November 2009 at 5:32pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes, conformity is pretty dull, and an inevitable effect of mass-production, mass-consumption and mass-capitalism. Please don't shoot yourself though, it's not over yet! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5966 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 22 19 November 2009 at 6:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is not a scientific journal, but it is one of my favorite sites to read:
edge.org You'll find many abstracts and essays and great commentary on current science here--with links to the same material in other languages! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5865 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 7 of 22 19 November 2009 at 7:09pm | IP Logged | ||
That is a very good site. But I looked at three of the editions and I see no links or any indication of any availability in any language except English. Am I missing something? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5966 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 22 19 November 2009 at 7:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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It is an enormous site. There is foreign language material there but it's not the main focus of the place. I recently found some articles from Der Spiegel in both original German and English translation and used them for study. I'll see if I can find some more specific links.
EDIT: Scroll down the main page and there is an article directly from Süddeutsche Zeitung, and I think there is some Spanish in the section about Darwin in Chile . . . I'll keep looking. Edited by meramarina on 19 November 2009 at 7:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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