Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Speaking a second language live is much harder than taking your time and writing something.


That's not necessary true. Regardless the response is totally trash and the timezone (US west coast) likely doesn't help, either

Also I'd expect if a person volunteers as translator they'd be pretty decent at speaking.


> Also I'd expect if a person volunteers as translator they'd be pretty decent at speaking.

Translators (of texts) are not interpreters.


To learn nuances, spoken language is quite important.

I am not a translator and English is not my 1st language (technically) - I'd have no issues 'hopping' on a call.


I do. My written English is orders of magnitude better than my spoken English - simply because I practice it a lot more.

I have no problem "hopping on a call" if it's a casual conversation between friends, but when stakes actually matter it would be stupid to put myself in a worse position than strictly necessary. Native speakers have a habit of talking a lot, talking fast, and talking with a lot of subtleties, nuances, and hidden meanings. In written conversations I can read a sentence twice and think a second about the right phrasing to use in response, but in face-to-face conversations this is simply not possible.

It would be like a professional debater like college kids "debating" with late Charlie Kirk: no wonder they end up "getting owned" - they are punching way above their weight class!


> To learn nuances, spoken language is quite important.

In my experience, it's quite the opposite: written language carries a lot more nuances than the (often more shallow) spoken language.


The timezone is UTC+7. That's in Asia, two hours from Japan time. That's why the staff member making the reply brought it up:

> My timezone is UTC+7, so it should be easier for us to set up time.


thanks a ton! I did read it as GMT-7... I had to recheck it (just in case).

Mia maxima culpa!


The only context I can think of in which it wouldn't be true is if someone learned the language through full immersion with no text involved, it's a bizarre situation.

There's also no reason as to assume that a volunteer translator is good at speaking, especially in regards to English, which pronunciation is not explicitly stated in its writing (like, say, Spanish).

You can't really ascertain how good I am at speaking, for an obvious example.


>You can't really ascertain how good I am at speaking, for an obvious example.

That comma, gives you away. The commas (and punctuation in general) in English are rather special in a way they convey the spoken language rather than designated rules.

Edit: As for the full immersion when I was learning English (as kid, 5th grade or so), I recall visualizing the words (letters) in my head while speaking. Certain mistakes like than <> then, it's <> it, their<>there etc. are unlikely to happen while writing due to the way language was initially perceived (and b/c I leaned if-then much earlier). Still, esp. with English I'd not consider translating anything unless my spoken version of it was good enough.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: