ELL: Transparent Language Systems offer and smaller commu

Thu Apr 8 15:50:29 UTC 1999

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From: MQuinlan at transparent.com
Date: Thu, 08 Apr 1999 10:50:29 -0500
To: <endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au>
Subject: Re:ELL: Transparent Language Systems offer and smaller commu
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> Beyond the difficulty of funding, the prospects of such a
> project do seem to take seriously the extreme urgency of
> the situation.  However, they perhaps fail to take account
> of the contexts out of which traditional community members
> may operate.
>>Richard A. Grounds

An endangered-languages-l participant sent me a copy of the recent thread on
our
Endangered Languages Revitalization and Preservation Project concept. If it's
acceptable, I'd like to add my voice to the mix and answer any questions.

I am not an expert in endangered languages, nor an activist in that arena. In
the postings I read, I would not argue with the information on languages. In
terms of information on TLI, however, some was accurate, some not. In some
cases
we were painted as better than I think we are, in some cases worse. Perhaps I
can at least clarify some of the community's questions about us. And then I'd
like to respond briefly to Richard's comments.

Transparent Language, Inc. was founded based on an idea for a good way to
learn
a langauge using technology. The result was a technology and product line we
call LanguageNow!. (I apologize for the exclamation point; it's one of those
marketing things.)

We make our living creating learning packages for the consumer market, and
sometimes create packages under special contract for educational publishers or
the government. From the earliest days of TLI, I've wanted to see LanguageNow!
used in less-common languages, where the need is greater, though the "market"
almost non-existent. When initially demonstrating the first prototypes of
LanguageNow! to educators, for instance, the head of Classics at Univ. of Mass
saw the program and insisted we do not only Spanish, French and German as our
first languages, but also Latin. It's wonderful for modern languages he said,
but it's much more important for us. So we did, with a great deal of help from
him. Since then we've found that our largest numbers of customers are in the
common languages, but our most fanatical users are in the less-common
languages.

Since then we have done languages such as Polish, Irish, Arabic, Swedish and
Dutch, for which there are very small commercial markets. We've enjoyed it and
it's good for our company since it makes us stand out. But we can only push
that
envelope so far. Early on I spoke to some Native American communities, and
there
was interest, but we were not really ready or able to pursue such projects, so
the discussions just sort of petered out.

The issues raised by Richard are the key to how I now think about our ELRP
Project concept in relation to smaller language communities. For instance, we
are not the Yuchi community. Our opinions on whether the Yuchi language should
be passed on to new generations, and if so, how and with what constraints, are
not relevant. We are not members of, advisors to, or even advocates of, the
Yuchi culture. (That sounds as if we don't wish them well, and I don't mean it
that way, but however well intentioned I doubt the Yuchi community wants us as
advocates, which is often a euphemism for "groupie.")

However, our technology is, I believe, a magnificent way to leverage the time
and skills of native speakers, and to make growth of the language and passing
down of the language to new generations more effective. The Yuchi may or may
not
find that interesting and useful to them. I am speaking with various
communities, and one comes to mind that would very much like to do the project
if funding can be found. The person I'm talking with was pleasantly surprised
to
find that the elders were highly supportive of the project. That's just one
community, though, and I'm sure some others would be horrified at the thought.

I was pleased that at least one of the ELL participants, Martha Macri, has
used
LanguageNow!. What we are proposing is working with "Cultural Partners" and
"Financial Partners" to create a LanguageNow! package for a less-common
language
that is every bit as robust and comprehensive as the "major" language packages
she has used. (BTW, some have mentioned Machine Translation, but that's not
part
of the initiative. That might be interesting, but it's a whole different
idea.)

Many people think of language archiving as language preservation, but we think
language learning is language preservation. Technology is just one tool in
language learning, but great technology can be a very powerful tool that
leverages other assets.

Please don't think we are trying to pass ourselves off as saviors or martyrs
or
some sort of entity of ultimate purity. The ELRP Project is really just a name
for an idea of mine that funding could be found for highly cost-effective, but
non-commercial projects if:
    the projected results were perceived as important,
        the achievement of the projected result was highly certain, and
	    the costs and schedule of the project were highly predictable.

	    Our assertions relative to those goals are, respectively,
	        With LanguageNow! the result is known; everyone can see the
	        technology at
		work in another language before the project starts.
		    We have done many of these projects and can be fairly
	        certain a new one will
		be successful.
		    That same multi-project history gives us the confidence to
	        guarantee the
		cost of the project.

		This is a personal initiative of mine, and recently I haven't
		been able to pay
		as much attention as I would have liked. A number of months
		ago I formalized the
		idea in a little white paper and described the concept in our
		catalog to see
		what the reaction would be, if any. I'm pleased to see that
		your list at least
		finds the idea interesting. Any suggestions, questions,
		comments or criticisms
		are welcome, either via the list or directly.

		Michael

		------------------------
		Michael Quinlan
		President
		Transparent Language, Inc.
		22 Proctor Hill Rd.
		P. O. Box 575
		Hollis, NH 03049 USA
		603-465-2230 ext. 303
		603-465-2510 (fax)
		mquinlan at transparent.com
		http://www.transparent.com
		http://www.freetranslation.com
		------------------------

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