Twitter and Translation--A Great Combination

I admit that sometimes I am (way too) enamored of Internet technology. I started off my spring break by installing Google Chrome on my home desktop and laptop computers and setting up my iGoogle homepage with three tabs, one for English language news feeds, one for Spanish language news feeds and one with Twitter, Facebook and Digg feeds. I probably could become as equally enamored of gadgetry except that I don’t have the excess cash to spend on gadgetry. Since Internet technology is basically free, it makes it easy for a wannabe geek like me to experiment.

I’m also enjoying scouring online news for articles on the growing use of social networking sites, especially those that have an international angle. I first heard about Twitter when I read a story about a student arrested in Egypt in April 2008. He twittered his way to freedom (http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/25/twitter.buck/). Just today, I read a Wall Street Journal article about using Twitter to provide reliable news on the unrest in Madagascar (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123716141767335587.html). As you might imagine, I have become a big Twitter fan.

The WSJ article caught my attention for a couple of reasons. First, it was in the Wall Street Journal. That should not have been a surprise. Recently, the WSJ has been a good source for Twitter articles. It also caught my attention because it involved translation. Translation joined with Twitter to get the news out from a remote location without access to reliable, independent news...now that’s exciting stuff for a technophile translator/translation instructor. As I think about the impact of technology on translation, I get excited about next semester at SNU. I doubt that many students have the same enthusiasm as I do for the start of next semester. After all, we’re just barely half-way through this semester. However, I get to teach a course on the use of technology in translation. The big difficulty is going to be to cram it all into a 3-credit class.

One of the things I tell prospective translation students is that because SNU’s program emphasizes the development of advanced writing skills in both English and Spanish, it is an excellent program to prepare students for careers in international journalism. Perhaps in the not-too-distant future one of my former translation students will be using a cell phone and Twitter (or whatever comes along after Twitter) to report live on some significant breaking news event in Latin America. When they do, I just hope they remember to include me in on the news feed.

Getting back to my puttering around on my computers, I’m quite proud of how I have Google Chrome set up. I’ll be happy to send you some screen shots to let you know how cool it is. Just let me know.