Its been an often reflected on fact that when I came to Armenia about a year and a half ago my Armenian was poor at best. My entire vocabulary could probably have been recorded on two 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper.
Entering the Kevorkian Seminary was challenging for a number of reasons, not the least of which was my inability to understand most of what was being taught in my classes. Naturally, over time, my Armenian improved. I took private lessons for a number of months, and when my schedule couldn’t allow for them any longer, I studied on my own time. By the time last year’s courses were finished, my Armenian had improved considerably. I was able to give all of my exams (most of them were oral) in Armenian, and I received respectable marks.
This year one of the courses I’ve been taking in the seminary is Armenian Language. This would be the equivalent to a English 101 class back home. It covers spelling, grammar, punctuation, and creative writing. Its worth noting that spelling and grammar were never a strong point of mine in the English language, so developing skills in Armenian has been equally challenging.
I’ve enjoyed this course. Its widened my vocabulary by forcing me to speak and write about topics that I never would in my theologically or ritualistically focused classes. One of the things thats been most interesting about this course has been comparing and contrasting my writing assignments with the other students.
Just different
I’m able to construct lucid, grammatically correct pros in Armenian now, however the style and nature of the underlying ideas in my writing varies widely from the other students. The professor often comments on this, and how interesting it is that without being conscious of it, my background renders my perspective of the world far different from my local Armenian peers.
To offer an example, we were recently asked to write a description of Lake Sevan. Out of the 20 students in the class I was the only one that offered a description of the well known Armenian landmark in the Winter, while the others all described it set in the Summer sun. It had apparently never occurred to them to describe it in the Winter, despite that fact that we are all currently living in Winter conditions. To quote another student, “why would [they] write about what its like in the Winter, when its a nicer place in the Summer?” In my description of the setting sun, I referred to the setting sun as being ruby red. Another student was dumbfounded. How could the sun be red like a ruby? That is just ridiculous.
There are at least a dozen other examples, and I’ve already grown accustomed to their stunned faces when I finish reading my writing assignments. It just causes me to reflect on how much our worldview is shaped in surprising and unappreciated ways by the culture and language we’re raised in.
Seeing with new eyes
From another perspective, I’m realizing how sometimes I find it difficult to express in English what can often so easily be expressed with beauty and poeticism in Armenian. In this way our language can feed us back, and allows us to see the world with new eyes.
I think this is a wonderful thing, and its proof that we all have so much to gain by reaching outside of our circumstances and emerging ourselves in another’s worldview. Furthermore, its another reason that I extend my utmost respect to all those that have had to really learn and live another language. Its an unparalleled enriching experience.
When I arrived in Armenia back in September there were two Internet resources for which I truly wished. The first was up-to-date and accessible information regarding locations in Armenia (i.e. resteraunts, services, etc…). The second was a tool to translate Armenian to English, and vice-versa.
My Wishes Were Granted
This first of these concerns was obviously colored by my being a newcomer who couldn’t find my way around a city, which even for locals can be a hard city to navigate. This has come along way in the past 9 month, and recently Google announced that it would be offering the ability to get directions within Armenia via Google Maps. Thank you, Google!
Today, thanks to a tweet from Der Ktrij Devejian, I found out that my second wish came true as well (no thanks to the failure that is translator.am). Again I have Google to thank. Google Translate now offers Armenian as one of their many inter-translatable languages.
Google Translate showing a translation of the word “Hello”
First, The Fun Stuff
Having this tool isn’t just about being able to visit Google Translate and write or copy-paste some text in the form, and get back a decent translation. Although, that is awesome and very much appreciated. This tool opens up a world of communication between the Armenian speaker and the rest of the world. Here are some fun examples:
Link to an Armenian translation of this or any webpage.
Obviously this would also work on the other direction if you want to post a link to an Armenian language resource that would be translated into English. You would have to change the part of the URL that says langpair=en|hy to langpair=hy|en.
Add a button to your website that will allow visitors to have it translated to and from Armenian. Visit the Google Translate Tools and Resources Page for more info.
Use Google Translator Toolkit for Serious Translation
Coming Soon Use Google Translator Toolkit to aid you in large translations. It allows translators to skip the easy stuff and focus on translating the real meaning of the text. It includes great collaboration and versioning features, and special tools for translating Wikipedia articles. This isn’t fully enabled for Armenian yet, but I’m sure it will be soon.
Watch American Idol with Armenian Subtitles
Or Հայ Սուբերստար with English Subtitles. Coming Soon See automatically generated and Armenian translated subtitles in YouTube videos. This currently exists in other languages, so I’m sure Armenian will be available at some point.
Why This Really Matters…
You may assume that this was something I wished for because it would help me bolster my Armenian skills (I didn’t begin learning Armenian until I was 26). This is partially the case, but as I student at the Gevorkian Theological Seminary, where all the instruction is of course given in the Armenian language, I noticed a pattern which I found very disconcerting. Later conversations with educators confirmed the seriousness of the issue.
From the beginning of the school year I had certain courses, like General Church History or General Theology, which primarily were taught by professors who during class would just read texts that were written in a foreign language. As they read they would translate the meaning from its original language to Armenian for the students to copy down verbatim in their notebooks for later study. At first I thought the teachers were just being lazy, but then it became clear to me. There is no good and/or contemporary literature written in the Armenian language on these topics.
This issue doesn’t just relate to subjects that would be taught in the Seminary, but effects all areas of academics and learning in Armenia.
Armenia is a small nation, and the Armenian language is spoken by a very small percent of the World’s population. As a result we haven’t had the capacity to process and translate the flood of information which has come about from our wired age. Subsequently, It is required that a student understand at least English or Russian to receive a decent education in almost any field. Of course I support multi-lingualism, but this is certainly limiting the potential of many of our people.
It goes without saying that having the entire wealth of the Internet accessible for the Armenian speaker is going to be a great boon for the Armenian Nation.
On the other hand there is a great cache of knowledge, especially regarding the Armenian Church and Armenian History, which is only available in the Armenian language. As time goes on, more and more of these texts will be digitized, and having a worthwhile online translator is again going to be of invaluable for students and faithful alike.
