The modern global village
is forcing the world’s scattered people with all their
different languages into regular contact with each
other. Now the very technological revolution that
is responsible for this intensity of international
exchange is also providing the solutions to communicating
across language barriers. The software which amazingly
translates words, phrases and sentences in a single
click, Babylon, is a
brilliant example.
My name is Steve Kaufmann, author
of The Way of The Linguist, A language learning
odyssey. I speak nine languages fluently (6 European
and 3 Asian) and I’m working on three more right
now at the age of 60. I know what it takes to learn
languages and one of the keys is efficiency. That’s
why Babylon
is so valuable. Having Spanish,
French,
Italian,
Portuguese,
Dutch,
and over 60 other languages available at the click
of the mouse is a major advantage in language learning.
One of my morning pleasures is to
go to my computer and peruse newspapers and websites
from around the world. I could not do this without
Babylon, my handy-to-use online dictionary program.
It does not matter if I am reading in Chinese,
German,
Japanese
or any other language. There are always words that
I am not familiar with. For new languages that I
am learning, like Russian
and Korean, Babylon
is even more important since it allows me to access
a wide range of interesting content.
About four years ago I realized
that the combination of the Internet and MP3 technology
would revolutionize language learning. We are entering
an age when language learners will be free from
the well intentioned tyranny of the language teachers
and their text books. To convert the new abundance
of interesting audio and text content now available
on the Internet into an enjoyable language learning
experience just requires the intelligent use of
technology. That is why I founded The Linguist.com.,
and chose Babylon.
The Linguist is a revolutionary
language learning system which accelerates vocabulary
acquisition and the achievement of language fluency.
Learners are able to learn from content that not
only matches their interests and needs, but is at
an appropriate level of difficulty and focuses on
the vocabulary they need to learn. Our system could
not function without a reliable and effective multilingual
dictionary. We chose Babylon
for its flexibility, ease of use, the variety of
dictionaries it offers, and its reliability. Babylon
interfaces ideally with our language students.
The Linguist.com ( http://www.thelinguist.com/front/babylon/babylon.jsp
) is an international community with users from
over 25 countries. When our members encounter words
that they do not know, they use Babylon to instantly
see the meaning and translation into their own language.
No longer do language learners have to deal with
traditional dictionaries that are slow and cumbersome
to use, only to quickly forget what they looked
up. No longer do they have to limit their reading
to boring text books. A whole world of interesting
content has been opened up to them. Language learners
worldwide have been liberated, thanks to Babylon.
