-
Johnson: OK computer
JOHNSON’s first foreign-language class was typical: a gaggle of 14-year olds, hormones raging, are gathered in a classroom when Señora White strolls in. ¡Hola y bienvenidos a la clase de español! Puberty is a terrible time to begin a language. One’s own parents are embarrassing enough. But to repeat nonsense words with strange gurgling and burbling sounds […]
-
Lose the language and you lose Shakespeare
His plays don’t become ‘accessible’ by translating them into ‘yoofspeak’. There’s nothing left to access Down with the Bard The news that Shakespeare is being translated into yoofspeak ("Dere was somefing minging in de state of Denmark," et cetera), while revolting, of course, struck me as not exactly news. Hasn’t this been done before? Or […]
-
Bugger! Microsoft has deleted the dirty words
There’s precious little fun to be had with the thesaurus built into my computer Wrong type of language: computer dictionaries censor the politically incorrect. Photograph: Getty In the words of John Cleese, I would like to register a complaint. via Books blog + Written language | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1o0NjDq
-
When Spell-Check Can’t Help
More sound-alike mix-ups — both rare and common. After Deadline http://ift.tt/1eJjl0y
-
Tweeting in style
“TWEETING” is a word we try to avoid in The Economist. But this hasn’t prevented us from sending out our style guide on Twitter, 140 characters at a time. To mark the 1,000th style tweet and the first anniversary of this feed, we have gone through all the messages to identify the most popular (as measured by […]