Thoughts on language requirements

[Statianus]

My first point was mostly in response to "While seminal works in one area might be translated, most recent publications will not have an English translation to follow. On this point, however, maybe it is different in philosophy." As far as your second point, fair enough; I assumed you were talking about philosophers in general.

 

Not disagreeing with you. I have only ever taken classical philosophy; I couldn't comment, and certainly didn't want to comment, on all philosophy. I was just writing earlier in response to a few comments that language requirements are redundant because of google translate or other technologies. If there is frequent publications in a foreign language in a given field, I don't think google translate is practical or reliable. 

[Table]

I was just writing earlier in response to a few comments that language requirements are redundant because of google translate or other technologies. If there is frequent publications in a foreign language in a given field, I don't think google translate is practical or reliable. 

 

No one said "language requirements are worthless, I can get a perfect translation from google translate." No one thinks that you can put a philosophy passage into google translate and get a great result. I guess you're talking about catwoman, but what she said was just that because the language exams are ostensibly testing your ability to translate passages back into English, it's frustrating that you can't use google translate, which is the first tool she would use in real life. 

[catwoman15]

 

No one said "language requirements are worthless, I can get a perfect translation from google translate." No one thinks that you can put a philosophy passage into google translate and get a great result. I guess you're talking about catwoman, but what she said was just that because the language exams are ostensibly testing your ability to translate passages back into English, it's frustrating that you can't use google translate, which is the first tool she would use in real life. 

 

 

Thanks, I definitely don't think google translate is perfect--but it seems odd to me that for SOME programs (my own included) you cannot use ANY digital tools, not even an online dictionary. In the real world, if I needed to translate, I'd use a good online dictionary, and google translate for phrases that were proving difficult to render well into english. I absolutely do not think that you can feed google translate a paragraph and get a great translation, but I can get the start of a translation that, along with a dictionary and some learned grammar skills, can be rendered into pretty good english with half the time of looking up a metric ton of words, by hand, in a five pound dictionary.

 

I've mostly stopped defending myself on this thread, because a lot of undergrads and philologists think they understand the mechanics of the discipline and graduate school better than I do. I think people think I'm being a jerk about it, but honestly, most philosophy is conducted in english, most philosophers are not continental philosophers, if you're a historian, classicist, or continental philosopher than language skills will be very important, but otherwise, probably not.

Edited January 15, 2014 by catwoman15

[MattDest]

 

I've mostly stopped defending myself on this thread, because a lot of undergrads and philologists think they understand the mechanics of the discipline and graduate school better than I do. I think people think I'm being a jerk about it, but honestly, most philosophy is conducted in english, most philosophers are not continental philosophers, if you're a historian, classicist, or continental philosopher than language skills will be very important, but otherwise, probably not.

 

FWIW, this is my own experience in the discipline and what advisors of mine have relayed to me seems to confirm it as well. 

[Statianus]

 

No one said "language requirements are worthless, I can get a perfect translation from google translate." No one thinks that you can put a philosophy passage into google translate and get a great result. I guess you're talking about catwoman, but what she said was just that because the language exams are ostensibly testing your ability to translate passages back into English, it's frustrating that you can't use google translate, which is the first tool she would use in real life. 

 

 

Sorry, I didn't have anyone in mind when writing that. I hope it didn't come across as aggressive. As I said, I can't give a verdict myself on what languages are needed in philosophy or to what extent. I suspect it varies between different areas of philosophy. I just wanted to give my own experience and be part of the conversation. 

And anyway, I never accused anyone of saying that language requirements are worthless or that google translate gives perfect translations. Everyone had very thoughtful responses. 

Edited January 15, 2014 by Statianus