Moderator:eskandar
vijayjohn wrote:The reason why that post exists on this forum has nothing to do with any kind of cultural taboos concerning tattoos. It's just because otherwise, people keep asking for translations of tattoos either to (if they want to get a tattoo themselves) or from (if they want to decipher a tattoo) Arabic.
Woods wrote:But isn't this a fun way to learn Arabic?
Can we not just tell them to put them all in one thread, or something like that?
vijayjohn wrote:Woods wrote:But isn't this a fun way to learn Arabic?
No. All they usually want is the translation for one phrase. They have zero interest in actually learning it.
vijayjohn wrote:Woods wrote:Can we not just tell them to put them all in one thread, or something like that?
People are terrible at following that rule especially when they're new users like almost everyone asking for translations in general, tbh. They just ask for a translation and then never post again, often not even to say thank you after they get a reply.
vijayjohn wrote:Woods wrote:But isn't this a fun way to learn Arabic?
No. All they usually want is the translation for one phrase. They have zero interest in actually learning it.Can we not just tell them to put them all in one thread, or something like that?
People are terrible at following that rule especially when they're new users like almost everyone asking for translations in general, tbh. They just ask for a translation and then never post again, often not even to say thank you after they get a reply.
nijk wrote:Agreed. When it comes to language spaces on the internet, requests for translations for tattoos are one of the most obnoxious things ever. They're usually requested by people who have no idea how language works so they think you can translate everything with a one-to-one correspondence, plus they seem completely clueless about the fact that language is really culture-dependent, so what might sound fine in American English, might sound completely off in Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, Japanese or in other languages.
Woods wrote:nijk wrote:Agreed. When it comes to language spaces on the internet, requests for translations for tattoos are one of the most obnoxious things ever. They're usually requested by people who have no idea how language works so they think you can translate everything with a one-to-one correspondence, plus they seem completely clueless about the fact that language is really culture-dependent, so what might sound fine in American English, might sound completely off in Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, Japanese or in other languages.
All right. My thought is just that we as educated and enlightened people about how languages work should do our part in educating them, and I wouldn't say banning their requests is the right way to do so.
Woods wrote:All right. My thought is just that we as educated and enlightened people about how languages work should do our part in educating them, and I wouldn't say banning their requests is the right way to do so.
vijayjohn wrote:I don't think we are "educated and enlightened people," just people who happen to be interested in Arabic and know at least a little bit of it.
nijk wrote:vijayjohn wrote:I don't think we are "educated and enlightened people," just people who happen to be interested in Arabic and know at least a little bit of it.
To be perfectly honest, I don't know any Arabic at all.
But this tattoo thing is actually a common plight for lots of languages (maybe not on here, but definitely on the internet at large).
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