What Language Is This? 5 Tools to Identify Unknown Languages

이 웹사이트에 환영. 이것은 보기 원본이다
What language is this? Chinese? Japanese?
It’s Korean actually. Detecting this manually would have taken me a lot of time. Fortunately, I found some very accurate tools that can do this automatically. They are all listed below.
The experiment: I tested the websites using sample text (1-2 sentences with 8 words) from the following languages: Portuguese, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, Italian, Turkish, Polish, Ukrainian, Azerbaijani, Slovenian, Macedonian, Dutch, Filipino (Tagalog), Greek, Galician, Czech, Belorussian, Finnish, Tatar and Norwegian.
Overall, I tested 20 different languages.

3 Tools to Detect Unknown Language Text

1. LangId (passed 18 out of 20 tests, didn’t pass Tatar and Belorussian)

Pros: Overall, great online tool. It offers basic text detection functionality and they also have Twitter and email-detection bots for even quicker results.
Cons: Their engine is based on Google API but they seem to have better results than the Google detector described below. It seems they know how to utilize things very well. I didn’t like that they don’t have their own unique algorithm to detect languages.
2. Google Language Detector (passed 17 out of 20 tests, didn’t pass Portuguese, Taglog and Belorussian)

Pros: Google has one of the world’s best API for language detection. They good thing is you’re able to see the probability of the result they display being true. They were able to pass most of the sample tests.
Cons: I was quite surprised they didn’t pass the Portuguese test. It seems they have a (I hope temporary) bug with this language. Also they can surely do a better job in making the page design better.
3. What Language Is This (passed 11 out of 20 tests, didn’t pass Russian, Korean, Ukrainian, Azerbaijani, Macedonian, Tagalog, Greek, Galician and Tatar)

Pros: Some languages like the South Slavic ones (Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian) are quite similar. In case you enter some Croatian text, let’s say, this website will tell you that the text could also be Serbian or Slovenian.
Cons: They need to work on making their detection system more sophisticated. I was thinking of putting Translated.net (another website for language detection) instead of this one, but Translated promised detection of more languages and actually did worse than WhatLanguageIsThis.com.

2 Tools To Detect Websites In Unknown Languages

4. Google Translate with Detect Language as the first option
Passed: 18 out of 20, didn’t pass Belorussian and Tatar.
Pros: This tool does its job very well. The thing I like about Google Translate is that if it doesn’t support a specific language it gives you the following screen:

That’s a great language detector if you ask me!
5. Microsoft Bing Translator with Auto-Detect as the first option.

Passed: 8 out of 20, didn’t pass Dutch, Vietnamese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Azerbaijani, Slovenian, Macedonian, Tagalog, Greek, Galician, Czech and Belorussian
Pros: It supports a limited number of languages. For those languages, it does its job well.
Cons: I am very disappointed with Microsoft. They have a very limited number of languages for detection& translation and their Auto-Detect feature is terrible. In case you enter a language they don’t support, you’ll get a wrong result instead of telling you they don’t support that language.

Thoughts

Overall, my opinion is the above tools are heading in a good direction. They are currently the best ones for detecting languages online and do their job pretty well when it comes to popular languages. However, they must work on adding more obscure languages (none of the tools were able to recognize Tatar) and I’m sure that all of them, especially Google will go in that direction in near future.

18 Great Sites to Learn a New Language

In Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, interstellar travelers had a little fish, called a Babelfish, that they could slip into their ear and make them instantly literate in any language. We normal, boring humans, however, do not have this luxury, which is why we must rely on the internet.
Although there are endless resources to learn languages on the web, it is often difficult to find quality websites that offer structured lesson plans for free. I, however, have scrounged the murky depths of the web to bring you the following, resource-packed sites; may they be the Babelfish for your future forays.

BBC Languages

BBC Languages’ site is very aesthetically pleasing, even though the organization is a bit confusing. The site is aimed at travelers, who only need to have a basic knowledge of a few key phrases in order to stay in a foreign country. Thus, BBC Languages offers “Quick Fix Phrases” in 36 languages to aid the weekend traveler in surviving abroad.
However, for those inclined to pursue either French, Spanish, German, or Italian further, BBC Languages offers a total of six 12-week courses in those languages. BBC Languages’ use of multimedia resources, including audio recordings of dialogues and videos of people encountering language-related mishaps overseas, makes this site a worthwhile site to check out, especially if you’re learning a language to travel.

LiveMocha

LiveMocha is one of the most full-featured language learning sites on the web: not only does it offer structured lessons for over twenty languages, but it also links you with other users all over the globe who are learning, or already fluent in the language you are learning.
As an incentive, LiveMocha uses a reputation system to encourage its users to submit flashcards and other teaching content, contact one another in order to practice speaking, and correct one another’s assignments.
The only drawback of using LiveMocha is in the event you are learning a language that does not use a Latin writing system – LiveMocha does not teach other writing systems, so for languages like Korean or Mandarin, you are on your own.

Check out Saikat’s review of LiveMocha here.

Babbel

Babbel’s premise is similar to that of LiveMocha – community driven learning. However, akin to previously mentioned Busuu, Babbel only offers Spanish, French, German, and Italian, and does not have LiveMocha’s structure.
Babbel teaches mostly vocabulary, and offers a very limited set of grammar lessons and writing exercises. However, when it comes to teaching vocabulary, Babbel is very thorough: it offers almost ten different ways to learn words, including “Listen and Match,” and “Slideshow.”
Like LiveMocha, Babbel also offers a chat, but rather than being one-on-one, Babbel offers five different chat rooms in the languages it teaches. In addition, Babbel hosts its own forum for users to interact and help each other learn.

Foreign Services Institute

The courses offered by the Foreign Services Institute were created by the United States Government and geared largely towards developing a verbal command for any particular language. All of the languages that FSI offers come with either a scanned textbook,  a large number of audio lessons, or both. Some of the more popular languages even come with a workbook.
In terms of solid material, FSI has the most usable content, but its lack of social features that allow you to interact and practice with other people is a major drawback, at least for me. However, if you’re not me, and would rather not have a social component to your language-related pursuits, then that shouldn’t bother you at all.
So today, I’ve introduced to you a few useful websites that will kickstart your language-learning adventures. However, the above sites may not be enough for you knowledge-hungry cosmopolitans out there, so indulge yourself in the following, language-specific links.

Spanish

Study Spanish - Best used in conjunction with Babbel, Study Spanish is great with grammar, but very limited with vocabulary.
Voices in Spanish- A Spanish Podcast – for intermediate to advanced students.
Learn Spanish at About.com – A conglomeration of other articles, the highlight being lessons on Spanish culture.

Chinese

Min Multimedia – Although the main page is a bit disorganized, the lessons are quite structured. Each has embedded audio, practice worksheets, and homework.
Chinese Tools – Grammar lessons, in addition to useful tools for writing in pinyin, converting between simplified and traditional, etc.
CRIENGLISH – Every lesson comes with a flash video, a review of difficult points, vocab, cultural tips, and more.

French

French Language School – Very well organized grammar lessons, but lacking interactive exercises.
The French Tutorial - Lacks exercises, but the lessons are downloadable as a printer-friendly PDF textbook.

Japanese

Learn The Kana – Uses cute image association tricks to help students learn Hiragana and Katakana.
Nihongo o Narau – A great collection of resources, including Japanese songs, to help you learn and practice Japanese.

Italian

Learn Italian at About.com – A collection of articles teaching various points of Italian grammar and vocabulary.
Italian Language School - The most complete, free Italian lessons I can find; comes with podcasts too!

German

Deutsch Lernen - 34 German grammar lessons (10 beginner and 24 advanced), accompanied by exercises and tests
DW-World – An impressive range of interactive lessons categorized by difficulty, and a progress meter for each lesson!
Whew, that was a lot of links. In any case, you should now have no excuse not to play around with the links and learn something new. If links don’t cut it for you, check out previously covered AIR application Popling , which pops up vocabulary words in your chosen language, or watch some subtitled music videos!
Are you dabbling in any languages? Do you have a tried and true site for learning languages? What do you think is the best method to learn a new language? Let us know in the comments!

Learn the english alphabet in sign language easily with Sign Lingo

Sign lingo is a very simple utility that shows you how to make a letter in the sign language, just type a letter and it will automatically show you how to make it with your hands.
Yes i realize this is a utility that probably none of you will use but i found it interesting, this particular program was found on a website of some guy who writes open source software, he is shutting down is site because no one donates him money, on one part i feel sad for him on the other i found his decision to shutdown his site stupid. You can`t write software and expect to roll in cash because most people don`t care about donating at all, unless your software is really good and unique no one will give a rat ass the effort you place in writing the software you create, you have to code programs for you i guess. most of the stuff on his site was pretty useless anyway because someone already beat him to the punch so i guess is not a big loss.
Sorry for this long rant that has nothing to do with the object of this blog but since the GTA 4 gameplay videos went online i have been hooked on them and i have been having trouble finding good freeware material to post.



Get it at http://gravityfx.org/2005/08/27/sign-lingo/

Mirror (In the likely case his site disappears) :

http://www.divshare.com/download/4342223-9e5

Busuu makes language learning almost simple

Busuu coffee!
Learning a new language can be a tricky thing. Some of us need to hear the language, others like to read it and still others just want to get out there and talk.

Busuu gives you the opportunity to try all three methods of learning and find out what works for you. After registering with the site, still in beta, you can start learning. You can choose learning modules based on things like travel, your daily routine or going to the bar.

Once you choose a module, you will be shown a variety of pictures. With each picture comes an audio pronunciation of the word (which you can replay) and a sentence containing the word. I really enjoyed using this part, but I wish I could've heard the sentences pronounced to get a feel for different word tenses.

After you review, and hopefully learn the words in the module, you move on to the fun parts! Read on for those...
Your first option is to take a little reading comprehension quiz. You are presented with three pictures and a dialogue in the language you are learning. From that, you take a three question quiz to see how well you can comprehend what is going on.

The quiz pulls from other models as well and you only need to have a basic grasp of the ideas presented to get the questions right. It was kind of fun, but I know if I heard that conversation by native speakers, I would still have no clue what was going on.

Next you can let native speakers critique your writing skills. You enter a phrase pertaining to the lesson you are working on. Native speakers have the chance to rate and comment on what you have written and offer suggestions. This is where knowing tenses and articles and such would really be helpful. The response, so far, is relatively quick with comments popping up within 10 minutes or so.

You can also choose to chat directly with native speakers. You can turn on a webcam and microphone, or, just type. Like any online space, it's really hard to say if you will get someone useful to chat with or not. I had someone message me several times asking if I could teach him French. Since I registered as an English speaker wanting to learn Spanish, I am not sure what he was hoping for. There are also plenty of people looking to flirt.

After going through those steps, you can take a test to see how well you learned the vocabulary in that module. The more tests you take and do well on, the bigger your language tree grows in your learning garden.

I don't think Busuu is going to actually teach me to speak a language but, I could certainly learn a lot of vocabulary if I put some time into it. At least I know how to get some coffee.