L’interview

As my region of study is FRANCE3D and the people speak French, I have to use both online translators (thank you freetranslation.com!) as well as the knowledge I have of the French language. I won’t lie; I’ve enjoyed having to translate between both languages because it helps me to retain a better grasp of the information. Here’s the French version:

1. tu aller au FRANCE3D souvent?

A: non pas souvent, mais parfois lorsuqe je me sens seuke
[14:20] JAMELCHICAGO: seule

2. tu as amis sur secondlife aussi?

A: non pas encore

3. porqoui aller a FRANCE3D? porqoui tu y aimes?

A; passer le temps et se moquer des filles

4. Est-ce qu’il y a des rassemblements ici?

souvent. aux rassemblements je salue toute le monde.

5. Y a-t-il des règles ici sur la façon dont les gens devraient ou ne devraient pas se comporter?

il y en a; mais ils ne sont pas definies

6. Qui les applique, si n’importe qui ?

surement les gens

sinon les admins

7. Qu’arrive quand quelqu’un viole ces règles ? N’importe qui a été expulsé ou a été demandé de partir avant ?

premièrement, nous leur avertons.

8. Quand une nouvelle personne visite cet emplacement, comment ils sont salués ?

nous il saluons. demandons qu’ils veulent.

It took me about 5 minutes to do the full translation; I had to look up several words. For those of you looking at this that have had to translate interviews into English from other languages, have you had to fully utilize online translators or do you have some understanding of the native tongue of those you are interviewing?

ENGLISH:

1. Do you go to FRANCE3D often?

A: Not very often, but sometimes if I’m alone

2. Do you have friends on Second Life also?

A: Not very many.

3. Why do you go to FRANCE3D? Why do you like it there?

A: To pass the time, and flirt with girls.

4. Are there many public gatherings here?

A: Often, at the public gatherings I say hi to everyone.

5. Are there rules about how people should or shouldn’t behave?

A: There are some. But I don’t know exactly what they are.

6. Who created these rules?

A: The admins.

7. When happens when someone violates these rules?

First, we warn them.

8. When a new person comes here, how are they greeted?

We say hi to them, then ask them what they want.

To any new followers of our blog, this is an example of how we conduct interviews (especially when they’re in a different language) – translation is sometimes necessary.

My review of “The Golden Rule”

All throughout the article, I had the thoughts in my head going in a circle similar to a dog chasing it’s own tail. When the author first challenges the golden rule, I discovered my inner Ebenezer Scrooge and said “bah humbug” to myself. Initially, I would’ve liked nothing more than to simply stop reading the article and to pull a “let’s don’t and say we did,” because I have always been someone that keeps the golden rule in mind.

I believe that everyone should keep the thoughts of others in mind.. if I catch myself acting impulsively and selfishly, I try my best to correct myself later (I am far from perfect just as everyone else is so obviously I fall short. But I try.), be it by approaching, with an apology, someone I had earlier confronted. But back to the point. I feel like everyone should keep in mind the thoughts and viewpoints of others when they commit actions that affect others on anything more than the most minuscule of scales. I make an effort, you should too. There’s my two cents.

Findings in Second Life

Yesterday (or technically, two days ago) I was able to get into contact with several individuals in the realm I’m working in, “FRANCE3D.” It’s pretty interesting stuff; I speak a bit of French and soccham speaks a little bit as well, but xB3LIEVEinBLUEx speaks none. We’ve tried to mess around a bit with a translator device on the game but to no avail.. Nonetheless, we’ve done our best to utilize freetranslation.com and google translate, with the former being a more accurate translation that puts our questions into words that the people we interview would more easily understand.

We’ve been using a set of questions translated into French from our original questions and have been copy and pasting them into dialogues. I’ve had a bit of fun trying to translate on my own what everyone’s saying; it’s very interesting to see how their language is used informally compared to our own. For example, both say “lol” but the French say “mdr” instead of “lmao” (another common saying).