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The Internet Businesses Google

Language Tempest At Orkut 948

Quirk writes "Reuters is carrying an article outlining an ongoing headbutting session between English-speaking users of Goggle's orkut and the Portuguese-speaking users of Brazil. The orkut site has more than 769,000 members; 41.2% are Brazilians and 23.5% are Americans. The sites are now mostly in Portuguese, and English-speaking users are complaining that the service is intended to be in English. Orkut is a service meant to develop by way of invitation, and the Brazilians claim since they are inviting their Brazilian friends it doesn't make sense to communicate in English. Brazilian internet users averaged an estimated 13 hours and 51 minutes in May, eight minutes more than for Americans."
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Language Tempest At Orkut

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 17, 2004 @11:06PM (#9728443)
    O SAO PAULO, Brasil (Reuters) - Brasil butted as cabeças com os estados unidos este ano nas edições que variam dos subsídios do algodão à guerra em Iraq. Mas talvez nenhuma das batalhas foi assim que pessoal como essa que está sendo lutado no Internet. Os milhares dos brasileiros têm os devotoes tornados de Orkut (http://www.orkut.com [orkut.com]), um local novo popular do social-social-networking do líder Google Inc da busca da correia fotorreceptora. Orkut permite que os membros organizem-se em comunidades em linha dos amigos, e dos amigos dos amigos, para discutir tudo do chess aos sanduíches. Mas as arremetidas dos brasileiros para juntar Orkut e locais sociais do networking do rival viraram alguns usuários em linha, que se queixam de um proliferation das mensagens afixadas no português, lingüeta nativa de Brazil's. Alguns usuários começaram mesmo comunidades especificamente para que os povos arejem seus gripes nesta edição. Os estados unidos têm ao menos 153 milhão usuários do Internet, comparados com o Brazil's 20 milhões. Ainda, os brasileiros ditos Orkut dominaram seu roster da sociedade em junho, outnumbering americanos para a primeira vez. O local diz que tem mais de 769.000 membros, fazendo lhe um do maior e mais popular de seu tipo no Internet. Aproximadamente 23.5 por cento dos usuários são dos estados unidos, quando outros 41.2 por cento forem brasileiros. Iranians são um terceiro lugar distante em aproximadamente 6 por cento.

    SOCIEDADE SELETIVA Orkut, nomeado após a Software Engineer Orkut de Google Buyukkokten, feito seu debut em janeiro e está ainda nos estágios testando. A parte de seu fascínio é seu exclusivity -- um pode somente juntar no invitation de um outro membro. o "Orkut traça o prestige social de one's, e os brasileiros são pela natureza gregarious, " Beth dito Saad, um professor na universidade da escola do sao Paulo's das comunicações e de artes. Embora mais de um quarto dos brasileiros vivam na pobreza, aqueles que podem ter recursos para o acesso do Internet têm surfers de correia fotorreceptora avid tornados. Nos termos do tempo gastados no Internet, os brasileiros afiaram para fora dos estados unidos em maio para o segundo mês em uma fileira, de acordo com Ibope/NetRatings. O investigador de mercado estima que o uso do Internet para brasileiros calculou a média de 13 horas e de 51 minutos em maio, oito minutos mais do que para americanos. O número de visitantes brazilian aos locais da comunidade e aos diários em linha levantou-se 14.6 por cento a 3.5 milhões em maio de janeiro, Ibope/NetRatings dito. Tammy Soldaat, um canadense, começou uma amostra do wrath brazilian recentemente quando afixou uma mensagem que pergunta se seu local da comunidade na perfuração do corpo deve ser exclusivo povoar quem falam o inglês. Os usuários brazilian de Orkut etiquetaram-na rapidamente um "nazi" e "xenophobe." "After que eu compreendi porque todos se está queixando sobre estes povos, porque they're que está sendo chamado o 'plague de Orkut, "' disse em um local chamado o brasileiro "Crazy Invasion." John Gibbs do Mountain View, Califórnia, fundou uma comunidade chamada o "So muitos brasileiros em Orkut." "When o usuário de Orkut da média vai olhar listas da comunidade para ver para fora what's lá, he'll vêem uma lista povoada com muito bonito todas as comunidades portuguese, " Gibbs dito. os "This estão frustrando altamente desde que Orkut não é um service." brazilian; Mas Mateus Reis, um publicist que viva no sao Paulo, os usuários ditos deve estar livre escrever o que querem, na língua de seu escolher. "Since nós podemos convidar qualquer um que nós queremos em Orkut, e meus amigos são brasileiros, ele doesn't fazem o sentido falando a eles em inglês, " Reis d
  • by mr_rangr ( 311899 ) on Saturday July 17, 2004 @11:07PM (#9728445)
    Fer fsck's sake, I wish the Slashdot editors would do something about the atrocious spelling of some of their contributors. What the heck is "Goggle"?
  • by bcrowell ( 177657 ) on Saturday July 17, 2004 @11:07PM (#9728447) Homepage
    ...Finnish?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 17, 2004 @11:12PM (#9728477)
    yes, an apostrophe.

  • wanh (Score:5, Funny)

    by eekygeeky ( 777557 ) on Saturday July 17, 2004 @11:12PM (#9728480)
    "OK, I onlee kno teh english lang and i wanto no wh4t teh 0thre d00ds r saying!!!!! they sux00r! b1gt1meeee! WTF? OMG? cant tey keep thos guyzz 0ff teh inetrn3t? OMG. OMG." bleh. carl
  • by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Saturday July 17, 2004 @11:18PM (#9728511)
    If the people at the table next to you are speaking Korean, it doesn't affect you.
    Though when people nearby are speaking a language you don't understand, and looking in your direction, and laughing and pointing, well it's hard to not imagine things.
  • by orthogonal ( 588627 ) on Saturday July 17, 2004 @11:20PM (#9728522) Journal
    How have other major international sites dealt with the language barrier?

    Você americanos sujos pensa de que você possui tudo, e Slashdot, mas é justo não assim.

    Fure seu hegemony internacional e seu McDonalds e seu Hollywood onde o sol não brilha.

    Pela maneira, eu sou amor o Mac Grande e esse Julia Roberts!

    [Google "translation" of above: "You American dirty think of that you possess everything, and Slashdot, but is just not thus. Hegemony pierces international its and its McDonalds and its Hollywood where the sun does not shine. For the way, I am love Mac Great e this Julia Roberts!"]


    [Original English source for the "Portuguese" response produced by Google "translation": "You dirty Americans think that you own everything, including Slashdot, but it's just not so. Stick your international hegemony and your McDonalds and your Hollywood where the sun doesn't shine. By the way, I'm loving it the Big Mac and that Julia Roberts!"]
  • by E_elven ( 600520 ) on Saturday July 17, 2004 @11:22PM (#9728531) Journal
    For those not in the know: 'orkut', in Finnish, is a vulgar expression for 'orgasm'.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 17, 2004 @11:27PM (#9728554)
    You speak English and I'll get one of those waxings your people are famous for.
  • Re:wanh (Score:5, Funny)

    by FatalTourist ( 633757 ) on Saturday July 17, 2004 @11:47PM (#9728661) Homepage
    Great, now even Slashdot's going all Portuguese.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 17, 2004 @11:48PM (#9728671)
    Speak XML, my friend, only XML. After all, conversation is data and XML is a language for data exchange. Think of all the advanced transformations you could do with that data.
  • by cosyne ( 324176 ) on Saturday July 17, 2004 @11:56PM (#9728714) Homepage
    I first scanned that as "13 hours and 51 minutes a day" and I was like "nah, I don't think I use it for much more than 12 hours."
    Gotta take my eyes away from the screen for a bit...
  • by AndroidCat ( 229562 ) on Saturday July 17, 2004 @11:59PM (#9728735) Homepage
    I guess we could all switch to Esperanto, the Unitarian Univeralist of languages.

    If we're talking about computer geeks, then Klingon or Elvish will be more common.

  • by bman08 ( 239376 ) on Sunday July 18, 2004 @12:05AM (#9728778)
    That's funny, most of the people I meet on the internet seem to speak asshole fluently.
  • by bugbread ( 599172 ) on Sunday July 18, 2004 @12:43AM (#9728961)
    Fuck, considering all the times I've corrected other people on that, here I go making the same damn mistake myself. Next thing I know I'll be saying "same difference". Sorry. I knew better; I just slipped.
  • by character_assassin ( 773327 ) on Sunday July 18, 2004 @12:55AM (#9729019)
    Today Warcraft III, tomorrow, the world! [Teacher in 2098] "Okay, class. Today we're going to discuss the English-Only Holocaust of 2031. It all began with this game server administrator in the 2000's who started to disconnect players for disobeying his English-only rule. Eventually, this hate-filled, power-mad psychopath would put down his Mountain Dew and take up the mantle of a brutal world dictatorship that marched non-English speakers into the gas chambers by the millions. If only someone had stood up to him back in 2004, countless lives could have been saved. But you know what they say: the frog gets boiled because he doesn't realize the water is slowly getting hotter." Just thought I'd flesh out your preposterous hyperbole.
  • by Joe Tie. ( 567096 ) on Sunday July 18, 2004 @01:04AM (#9729064)
    All of your analogies are wrong. Really, it's like a balloon and...something bad happens.
  • by coopaq ( 601975 ) on Sunday July 18, 2004 @01:25AM (#9729152)
    A friend invited me to Orkut. I signed up. It was fun. I logged on to message boards. Jimmy has a cat. It was fun like this post. People have pictures. It is neat. I like socks. Will you be my friend?
  • by Skim123 ( 3322 ) on Sunday July 18, 2004 @02:21AM (#9729362) Homepage
    Because you just described what basically all non-Koreans go through when meeting the Korean extended family for the first time. Sitting there, having Mr. Kim and Aunt Park having an animated discussion in Korean that ends in laughter and a finger pointed squarely at you.

    I speak from experience. :-)

  • by PatientZero ( 25929 ) on Sunday July 18, 2004 @04:15AM (#9729705)
    perlchild:
    I speak two and a half [languages] myself. [Proceeds to misunderstand and argue against autopr0n's original post]
    autopr0n:
    Are you illiterate?

    Looks like English is that "half" language. ;)

  • by PatientZero ( 25929 ) on Sunday July 18, 2004 @04:20AM (#9729715)
    [I]t's a selfish idiot problem.

    That's pretty much the root of every human-related problem I've ever encountered.

  • by michajoe ( 124916 ) on Sunday July 18, 2004 @05:37AM (#9729874)
    Actually, "Finish" is a synonym for "Orgasm"
  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18, 2004 @07:44AM (#9730162)
    não tenho ponto de modereação mas vou correr o risco de parecer um babaca completo e...

    sugerir que a gente comece a fazer em outros sites (tipo slashdot) a mesma coisa que fiaemos no orkut. tomar conta.

    pra evitar represalias, postamos como covardes anonimos, e outros brasucas com mod points moderam as mensagens pra cima (desde que as mensagens sejam razoavelmente civilizadas). ai os americanos vão ser forçados a reconhecer que não estão sozinhos no mundo e que não podem sair por ai impondo o que eles pensam.

    claro... usuários de outros poises estão convidados a fazer o mesmo.
  • by Oligonicella ( 659917 ) on Sunday July 18, 2004 @08:02AM (#9730199)
    I had a friend who would slip into French trying to bug me. I simply dropped into German. It ended quickly.
  • by Nailer ( 69468 ) on Sunday July 18, 2004 @10:44AM (#9730800)
    Or better yet, orkut.us, where the minority USA folk can go. :^)

And it should be the law: If you use the word `paradigm' without knowing what the dictionary says it means, you go to jail. No exceptions. -- David Jones

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