Wednesday, 8 March 2006 - 4:49 PM MST

So BabelFish is a program helps people who are learning English as a second language. That's neat, but what I do not understand is that yeah, English is a language used in America but it would be nice if our nation had many more languages to be used as a common langauge. For instance, in Canada French is used amongst English, and in Europe most contries have two or more dominate langauges. On television I saw a segment that said that Spanish speakers are increasing in the United States and that the United State might have to adopt a second common language besides English, what are your thoughts? If this is true than I can see BabelFish expanding internationally.

Monday, 13 March 2006 - 8:41 AM MST

I agree with you, Shereesa, tat as American we need to speak other languages. In our course textbook, it estimated that by 2050, the present population of Latinos will triple, Asian popopulation will more than triple and the non-Hispanic Anglo population will decrease from 76%-53% (p.4). There will be a major shift on all levels-politically, economically, socially, educationally. This is why multicultural education is so necessary now. We, as teachers, need to serve the learning, language and cultural needs of these students.

Babel Fish is an international propgram. I know of a student teacher at Hermosa Middle School, last semester who used Babel Fish to translate chapters of his English science textbook into Spanish for his Spanish speaking students. There is a fee for translating text but I think it has to do with the number of words or length of the passage. I wonder if there is Navajo language translation?
Check it out!

Thank you for your thoughts!!!!-} Frances