From Dwayne...
It's been a hectic, but
exciting start to 2007 ~
a trip to Morocco, a
visit from CNN, meetings
with extremely
interesting and
interested parties ~
this year has started
with a bang. It was
excellent to have some
of the WordForge team
from Cambodia spend time
with us at the start of
the year. I am
particularly pleased
that programmers from
developing countries in
Asia and Africa are
developing tools that
the rest of the world
uses. It's great that we
are getting to set the
pace and agenda, in
partnership with
Cambodia. Thanks for
your ongoing interest
and support ~ we will
keep you posted as to
all these exciting
developments.
This newsletter in
Afrikaans
CAMBODIANS IN THE
KRUGER
“We know that it is
possible to do this kind
of work without meeting
personally ~ we have
been doing it up till
now, but it was great to
put faces to names ~ as
well as hear how a name
should really be
pronounced,” says
Friedel Wolff,
Translate.org.za's
WordForge programmer,
after two young
Cambodians visited the
South African team in
February. Hok Kakada and
San Titvirak, both
Cambodians in their
early twenties, spent a
week in White River,
Mpumulanga, shacking up
at the ACTS HIV/Aids
clinic and getting a
taste of South Africa,
including a bona fide
Sefrikan braai*.
Translate.org.za,
KhmerOS and it46 are
implementing the
WordForge project,
developing Open Source
localisation tools in
the form of offline and
online translation tools
(the project is funded
by the Open Society
Institute and IDRC). Up
till now it has been a
virtual partnership, but
this was a good
opportunity for the
Cambodian and South
African teams to meet,
get to know each other,
receive some translation
project training from
Dwayne, code on joint
projects and share
common pieces of
programming.
Bushwhacking near the
famed Kruger National
Park seemed like a good
place to do this, so off
they set in the hopes of
spotting the Big Five as
well as get some good
time together, away from
the city. “Whilst we did
not see all of the Big
Five, the time of social
interchange whilst they
were here was pleasant,”
says Friedel, “As well
as learning more about
Cambodian culture. They
showed us, rather
unsuccessfully, how to
read their Khmer script,
which is no trivial
task.”
* South African
barbecue
CNN VISITS
TRANSLATE.ORG.ZA
Femi Oke, producer and
host of CNN's Inside
Africa, joined our PR
Guru, Janet Sebastian,
for a day around
Pretoria visiting
translators, end users
and the Translate.org.za
team. Janet and Femi's
first stop was at the
UNISA offices where
Kholisa Phodile, one of
Translate.org.za's
translators and a
lecturer at the
university, shared her
passion about mother
tongue advocacy and why
she is so committed to
translation projects as
well as the importance
of people learning in
their first language.
Femi got to see what
Kholisa's Xhosa desk top
looked like and
interviewed her on
camera. Next stop was
Hettie Dreyer, an
Afrikaans end user who
sang Translate.org.za's
praises and raved about
doing accounting work in
her home language. Femi
interviewed the
Translate.org.za team at
the office base and the
day was finished off
with an evening of
laughter, pizza and
sharing with
translators, users and
employees. “Watching all
the people around the
table – all colours,
different cultures,
varying languages -
laughing in unity and
excited about their own
mother tongue, was the
highlight of the entire
day for me,” said Janet.
We do not know when the
CNN programme will be
broadcast, but will let
you know as soon as we
do.
A CLOSER LOOK AT OUR
CONNECTIONS: GETTING TO
KNOW ... Mandy Njobe
Mandy Njobe is a pioneer
in her own field. 'I was
the first black employee
in the department of IT
at Technikon Natal,”
says Mandy, “I worked
very hard to get where I
wanted to be.” Today a
full-time lecturer in
the IT Department of the
Durban University of
Technology, Mandy Njobe
is one of
Translate.org.za's most
vibrant partners. She
has organised
translate at thons at the
university, drawing in
young people of all
languages to come and
translate software,
amongst other things. We
asked her a few
questions:
Tell us a bit about your
background?
I was born in a small
rural farm area of
Umzimkulu in Transkei.
We moved around quite a
bit ~ from Kroemhook to
Rietvlei, where I spent
most of my years of
study. I later moved to
Mount Free where I
matriculated, and
eventually via
Pietermaritzburg ended
up in Durban, where I am
based today. I have had
excellent opportunities
to study at Technikon
Natal as well as being
offered a scholarship at
the University of
Westminster in London. I
turned it down as I had
just been accepted for a
full-time position of
lecturer at what was
then the Durban
Institute of Technology.
My childhood was quite a
rocky one with my
parents getting divorced
when I was small. We
grew up very poor, all
living in a one- roomed
shack. We all had to
work very hard to get
bursaries to study and
my mother studied at the
same time to become a
teacher. It was not an
easy time, but today we
all have vibrant
careers. I have one
beautiful daughter from
my late husband, Gazu.
What are your hobbies?
I like listening to
various types of music,
but I enjoy spiritual
songs most. I am a very
inquisitive person so
spend a lot of time
surfing the internet for
the latest technologies
and research. That has
become like a hobby for
me.
How did you get involved
with Translate.org.za?
Initially I was worried
about the way that
previously disadvantaged
students were performing
in a computer literacy
class, which reminded me
of my battle through my
IT diploma. Most of
these students do not
have computers at home
and I thought deeply
about how I could assist
these students in their
learning. One thing that
came through quite
strongly was that
English was a challenge
in the learning of
computers. A lot of
studies have proved that
English second language
students find it
difficult to learn in
their second language. I
started searching the
web and guess what I
found ....
TRANSLATE.ORG.ZA!
What excited you about
it all?
I was very moved by the
fact that fellow South
Africans are actually
doing something about
the problem. I said to
myself .. I need to get
hold of that
organisation and see if
we can come up with
something to assist
these students. Dwayne
was awesome ~ he did not
hold anything back and
gave me everything I
needed to help my
students. He came up
with the idea of
translate at thons in the
institution, which was
quite an experience for
us all. Even today, I am
dishing out this
software like you can
never believe, as I
believe that it must
reach as many students
as possible.
Why did you get
involved?
I believe every person
deserves a fair chance
in education. People
should not be
discouraged to explore
technology just because
there are no means to
get there, neither
should they be forced to
use something they are
not comfortable with,
just because they have
no choice. People like
myself have climbed a
few steps of the
ladder .. we need to now
look back to see what we
can do to help those
behind us. As far as
language is
concerned ... I will do
anything to preserve
indigenous languages and
anything to promote
their use.
Why spend so much energy
on translations?
I do it for myself, for
my community and most of
all, for the government
to see the potential in
us, that even though
technology was not
developed by us, we have
the ability to change it
and make it better for
the people of this
country. Technology is a
worldwide bread for
everyone and in a true
South Africa, this goes
for previously
disadvantaged people as
well.
PARTING SHOT – Quote of
the month
"Years of research have
shown that children who
begin their education in
their mother tongue make
a better start and
continue to perform
better than those for
whom school starts with
a new language. The same
applies to adults
seeking to become
literate. This
conclusion is now widely
implemented." John
Daniels, Assistant
Director General for
Education, UNESCO.
Dwayne Bailey
(012) 460 1095
info at translate.org.za
www.translate.org.za
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.obsidianonline.net/pipermail/translate-announce/attachments/20070315/4c25f277/attachment-0001.htm