LG launches website to help parents understand what their kids are saying when they are texting their friends. Their website called DTXTR.com, pronounced Dee-Text-Er. Taking a page from how Phrasebase works, if dxtr doesn’t understand a given input, it asks for you to do the translation for them, so that translation can be added to their database.
  

Problem is it seems, the teens aren’t going to be eager to help ma and dad with their lingo, so they are unlikely to use the site and enter in new terminology. So, how will they continue to maintain an accurate and up to date database? Will be interesting to keep an eye on this application.

Microsoft’s announced the name of their new search engine. It’s called Bing. Interestingly enough, while there are several meanings for “Bing” in Mandarin, one of the more common definitions is “Disease“.

病 = disease

The character part 疒, which itself is without independent meaning as a full word, stands for diseases and words associated with diseases.

先天病 = xian(1)tian(1) bing(4) = congenital disease

后天病 = hou(4)tian(1) bing(4) = acquired disease (as opposed to a congenital one)

性病 = xing(4)bing(4) = venereal disease
 

Lets hope this new search engine can give Google a run for it’s money and doesn’t end up being a disease.

In our endless quest to either build or find the perfect language learning solution, many paths have sent us toward a Dr. Georgi Lozanov, developer of the system “Suggestopedia”, also called “Accelerated Learning”.

Dr. Lozanov, a Bulgarian Psychologist and who unfortunately is no longer with us today, developed Suggestopedia back in the mid 1960s’s stating:

Suggestopedia (in its new desuggestive development as well) is a science for developing different non-manipulative and non-hypnotic methods for teaching/learning of foreign languages and other subjects for every age-group on the level of reserve (potential, unused) capacities of the brain/mind. That means: at least three to five times faster, easier and deeper learning, inner freedom, increasing the motivation for learning, joyful learning and psycho-physiological well-being. 

There is no question of the impact this method had on language learning in the 60’s and 70s’s. We have talked with students who have been through the Accelerated Learning system in the 80’s, and they swear that today, nothing exceeds it.
 
However, the methods are heavily, well, exclusively teacher focused. In fact, Dr. Lozanov spent all of his time teaching teachers. So the effectiveness of this type of training system boiled down to the quality of the teacher. Here is what Dr. Lozanov says on the subject:

 There is no other method or system that operates on this level. That is why working with this method requires the teacher to be properly trained. There is a lot of information in the authentic publications of Dr Lozanov but unfortunately this is not enough for a teacher to be trained. The whole training process is a specific form of art which cannot be mastered only by reading. It is as if a person who has not studied music was giving a professional concert only by a published description of the performance. Teaching is not  the mastery just a bunch of techniques but it is about emotional development and the need to teach empathetic skills. Do not rely on advertisements that are using the name of Dr Lozanov and are done by people who cannot show an authentic certificate. The teacher needs individual training and adaptation to the method in its dynamics if she/he wants to be a really good and creative teacher.

In todays world demand for fast learning and the DIY (Do It Yourself) mentality is the norm. Most adult language learners, or students who don’t have time to sit in class several hours each day and are trying to learn a foreign language online want a new innovative approach to language learning that doesn’t rely so heavily on the competency of the teacher and allows them to study on their own time.
 
While Dr. Lozanov’s techniques and methodologies were a breakthrough in the 60’s and 70’s, we find it difficult to find ways of bringing the success of his system into the era of the internet.
 
If you are a language teacher and want to improve, we highly recommend that you read Dr. Lozanov’s Foreign Language Teachers Suggestopedic Manual.

We have set up the FAQ category of the Phrasebase Blog to help you with questions or concerns you may have in using the Phrasebase website and services.
 
To ask a question to be addressed and answered here in the FAQ section, please Contact Us Here.

The company neuroLanguage has a unique business model. Part of what makes it unique is that it’s difficult to understand what exactly they do. When you figure out what they do, you learn that it’s more a platform technology they are creating for 3rd party developers more than it is an end product for consumers. Here is an overview of how they describe their business: 

The neuroLanguage Practice Platform is a web-based system to help people engage, understand and read relevant English content. 

A typical end user of our system has some English background – but they typically struggle with either active listening skills (auditory), or with reading comprehension ability (visual). The Practice Platform helps these people unlock their prior English ability and apply it to content that is of high personal interest to them. The system leverages the users’ strengths, and helps develop other weaker language areas in the process. 

Central to the system is the ability of the Practice Platform to quickly adapt to new content.  Our system leverages the latest web 2.0 capabilities and makes turning existing content into Practice enabled content a user friendly and scalable business process.

This approach represents a win-win value proposition for end users of our system and content publishers who are trying to reach new audiences with their existing content assets.

After reviewing the business to some depth, we can interpret what this means and put it into laymans terms for you.

neuroLanguage has created a platform, a technology, that can be used by other businesses to create new applications around or to extend their existing products or services.

The name of their platform product is called “Practice Player”. It is a web based platform that utilizes proprietary speech to text capabilities, therefore allowing the user to post audio files, video files, or podcasts to the player. The player then breaks it up into it’s indivual words into a script.

When the user plays the video (for example) the written text along the left hand side will high each of the words dynamically as it’s spoken in the video.

This technology is not meant to help new students of English language. It is meant for students who already have a foundation in English, an intermediate to advanced level of English proficiency.
 
The Practice Player then assists these students to take their English to the next level by improving their their listening, spoken or visual abilities (matching of text with spoken language) in English language.

The expected market size of people seeking to become more fluent in English is expected to reach 3billion people by 2015.
 
For more information, watch a demonstration of the Practice Player.

Most people underestimate the importance of communication. Here is an example illustrating the importance of communicating properly:

Talk about a total fail. Microsoft names it’s lasted product Cibai… Which apparently, isn’t an acronymn for anything, they just like the name.
 
Well, it turns out that in Singapore and Malaysia, Cibai is a cuss word that describes the female genitalia in vulgar terms.

Cibai’ is a a Chinese dialect (specifically, Hokkien) term for vagina, and ‘Cibai’ remains the most popular spelling. Other variations include ‘chee bye’, ‘chibai’, or ‘ji bai’. ‘Cibai’ can also be used as the equivalent of ‘damn’! or ‘fuck!’, as it is also used as an exclamation if someone is angry or upset. It also can be used with adjectives, eg ‘Chau cibai’ basically means ’smelly cunt’. There’s also the 6 hit combo ‘Kan Ni Neh Chau Ci Bai’ (often abbreviated to KNNCCB) term that is quite popular that means, er, nevermind.

You can see more the term defined here at urbandictionary.In short it’s one of the worst things you could call your software product.  

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