Rabu, 13 April 2016

Ginger Translation Software

Ginger

Advantage of Ginger:

            Ginger uses statistical algorithms in conjunction with natural language processing, aiming to improve written communications, develop English speaking skills and boost smartphone productivity. The algorithm in ginger allows it to correct the written sentences with relatively high accuracy (eliminating up to 95 percent of writing errors), compared to standard spell checkers. Using Ginger Software, a student who may have dyslexia is able to write a sentence and then listen to their writing. This enables them to decide if what they have composed is correct. If they are not sure, they are able to choose a word from the list of alternative choices. Not only does Ginger’s Text To Speech offer the ability to enhance sentence correction, but for writers who struggle with pronunciation, they are also able to hear a proper word pronunciation. This is very helpful for building better speech and literacy skills.
            This is helpful for Bloggers, students, employees, office workers and all for those who use to write the documents. After installing this on your computer, you can use it anywhere. It works everywhere. You can use it in Microsoft Office files, WordPad or NotePad, Browsers, Social Sites and even in the post editor. Ginger provides an automatic spell checker, assisting people with learning difficulties such as dyslexia to improve their writing skills, through an intelligent automatic context-based correction of spelling mistakes and misused words.

Disadvantage of Ginger:

1. It takes too long to install.
2. Although this system makes the application more potent, it also requires an extra flow of data between your computer and servers. Moreover, the application becomes absolutely useless without an Internet connection.

HOW TO USE GINGER

Ginger helps you write better by providing you a toolbox for all of your writing needs. It includes a grammar and spell checker, translator, word definitions and contextual synonyms. This is how the toolbox in Ginger looks like:



1. The first feature is Grammar and Spell Checker. As you write within the application, your grammar, spelling and punctuations are automatically highlighted



Hover over the highlighted words to see the suggestion for the correct words.



Click the suggested words to approve and applied it to your text words or you can click the “x” to ignore the suggestion. As simple as that.
You can also use Grammar and Spell checker Microsoft Office files, WordPad or NotePad, Browsers, Social Sites and even in the post editor. Write your text in those programs and Ginger will automatically run and help you with your writing by highlighting the words which are not correctly placed or not fit in into the context or meaning in the text.


2. The second feature is a Translator. Simply choose a language and input the text you’d like the translation tool to transform. You can use this language translation software to communicate with others or to improve your own English skills.

 All you have to do is write the  text you want to translate in the application.


Write your text in the language you want, for example in English, and you want to translate it to Bahasa Indonesia. 


After you write your text, click Translate to show the translation


In the translation above, it shows that Ginger has a grammar tool which is more sophisticated than other programs. Ginger already knows which one is the NOUN in the text, a topic which may or may not be addressed by other programs.

3. The third feature, which are also very useful, is Word Definition.You can use this feature to look up the word you don’t understand or unclear. This feature will give you the full definition of the word.


All you have to do is write the word in the box provided. After you write your word, click enter to see the list of definitions provided by the program.


4. The last but not least is Synonym feature.

Ginger synonym is more than just thesaurus. You can use this feature to find colorful synonyms for your texts. Same with Word Definition feature, write your word in the box provided and click enter to see the synonyms to your word provided by the program.



Once you find the synonyms for your word, you can spice up your writing and choose the best way to express yourself.

Resource(s):
Gingersoftware.com




Selasa, 15 Maret 2016

Intra-lingual, Inter-lingual, Inter-semiotic Translation

In translating literature, there are types of translation which have been stated by the experts. Some of those translations are classified by the symbolic systems which are involved, texts which are translated, and also by the process and the emphasis of the translations. 
Roman Jacobson (1959:234) distinguishes translations into three types, which are intra-lingual translation, inter-lingual-translation, and inter-semiotic translation. 
Intra-lingual translation is the process of transferring a text into another text in the same language based on a translator’s interpretation. Therefore, if we rewrite Aku, a poem by Chairil Anwar into a prose in Bahasa, it means that we are doing the intra-lingual translation.
The second type of translation is inter-lingual translation. This type of translation is a translation in the actual meaning. In this translation, translators rewrite the meaning or the source language text into the target language text.
The last type of translation is inter-semiotic translation. This type of translation covers the interpretation of the texts into other forms or symbolic systems. One of the examples of this translation is an interpretation of a novel into a film.

Minggu, 10 Januari 2016

Music in My Life

Music is one of the most important and powerful things in my life. My life without melodies and harmonies would be totally empty. To me music is more than just something to listen to or play, it’s something to feel. Listening to and playing different tunes helps me with my stress. It helps relax and it can also help to motivate me in difficult times. I love listening to music while on my way to campus, as I feel it helps me to prepare for the long day that waits and I know will go wrong one way or another. I also sincerely believe music has the ability to convey all sorts of emotion. Music shows whether the emotion is joy and happiness or sadness and despair through rhythms, harmonies and the lyrics. Music also has the ability to transport me back in time. It lets me revisit lost and forgotten moments in life. For example, I remember camping with my friends and the whole way along the camp site we sang songs and I actually can remember clearly all the songs we sang. I also feel that it helps me to get through things. Music is an immensely powerful thing and has a huge place in my life right next to my heart.


Rekomendasi Novel

Banyak dari kita yang bisa menghabiskan waktunya tidak melakukan apa-apa kecuali untuk membaca novel. Memang, ketika kita membaca novel, menghayati kata per kata dan menikmati penggambaran sang novelis melalui untaian kata yang mereka tulis memang menyenangkan. Sensasi yang didapatkan ketika membaca novel memang sangat berbeda dengan, katakan saja, jika kita menonton film. 

Berikut adalah rekomendasi untuk para pecinta novel:

1. Will Grayson, Will Grayson 


One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, teenager Will Grayson crosses paths with..."Will Grayson"! Two teens with the same name who run in two very different circles suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions. Culminating in epic turns-of-heart on both of their parts, they team up to produce the most fabulous musical ever to grace the high-school stage. Told in alternating voices from two award-winning, popular names in young-adult fiction - John Green (author of "The Fault in Our Stars") and David Levithan (author of "Boy Meets Boy").

2. Eleanor & Park


A moving and funny coming-of-age novel about two misfits falling in love and growing up in 1980s America. Eleanor is the new girl in town, and she's never felt more alone. All mismatched clothes, mad red hair and chaotic home life, she couldn't stick out more if she tried. Then she takes the seat on the bus next to Park. Quiet, careful and - in Eleanor's eyes - impossibly cool, Park's worked out that flying under the radar is the best way to get by. Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall in love. They fall in love the way you do the first time, when you're 16, and you have nothing and everything to lose. 

3. The Cuckoo's Calling


Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's suicide. After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office. Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, thelegendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

4. Paper Towns


Quentin has always loved Margo Roth Spiegelman, for Margo (and her adventures) are the stuff of legend at their high school. So when she one day climbs through his window and summons him on an all-night road trip of revenge he cannot help but follow. But the next day Margo doesn't come to school and a week later she is still missing. Q soon learns that there are clues in her disappearance ...and they are for him. But as he gets deeper into the mystery - culminating in another awesome road trip across America - he becomes less sure of who and what he is looking for.

5. The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell


Alex and Conner Bailey's world is about to change, in this fast-paced adventure that uniquely combines our modern day world with the enchanting realm of classic fairy tales.
The Land of Stories tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about. But after a series of encounters with witches, wolves, goblins, and trolls alike, getting back home is going to be harder than they thought.

Summaries diambil dari: Periplus.com

Kamis, 07 Januari 2016

Harry Potter and The Cursed Child

Harry Potter and The Cursed Child is an upcoming stage play of the famous Harry Potter series. written by Jack Thorne and based on a story by author J. K. Rowling, Thorne and director John Tiffany. The play is scheduled to open in July 2016 at the Palace Theatre, London, England. 

The play is set nineteen years after "Deathly Hollows" follows the story of Harry Potter himself as a ministry officer and his youngest son, Albus Potter. This Harry Potter story is considered as the 'eighth Potter story'. 

The play's official synopsis was released on 23 October 2015:

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.
While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

The producers of the play have revealed the lead casts. Play as Harry, Ron, and Hermione are Jamie Parker, Noma Dumezweni and Paul Thornley. There are controversies on the casting of Hermione, criticising the choice to cast a black actress in the role, when the part’s original actress had been white.
The cast of 'Harry Potter And The Cursed Child'

But the author of Harry Potter herself, J.K. Rowling, is excited about the casting and showing her support on her twitter account:
Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair and very clever. White skin was never specified. Rowling loves black Hermione.





Sources:
Harrypotterwiki
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/01/04/emma-watson-hermione-noma-dumezweni-harry-potter_n_8909962.html


Rabu, 06 Januari 2016

Murasaki Shikibu and her "Tale of Genji"


Murasaki Shikibu, or Lady Murasaki as she is sometimes known in English, was a Japanese novelist, poet, and a maid of honor of the imperial court during the Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1008, one of the earliest and most famous novels in human history. "Murasaki Shikibu" was not her real name; her actual name is unknown, though some scholars have postulated that her given name might have been Takako (for Fujiwara Takako). Her diary states that she was nicknamed "Murasaki" ("purple wisteria blossom") at court, after a character in The Tale of Genji. "Shikibu" refers to her father's position in the Bureau of Ceremony (shikibu-shō).

Lady Murasaki is said to have written the character of Genji based on the Minister on the Left at the time she was at court. Other translators, such as Tyler, believe the character Murasaki no Ue, whom Genji marries, is based on Murasaki Shikibu herself.

The Tale of Genji was written in an archaic court language that was already unreadable a century after it was written. Thus, the Japanese have been reading annotated and illustrated versions of the work since as early as the 12th century. It wasn't until the early 20th century that Genji was translated into modern Japanese, by the poet Akiko Yosano

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Genji#Authorship

Shodo, Japanese Caligraphy

Japanese Caligraphy or Shodo is an artistic writing of Japanese characters. It has similar techniques and principles to Chinese calligraphy. The usual method of practicing Japanese calligraphy is by writing the characters in ink (sumi) on mulberry paper (washi) and incorporates the same basic styles of writing that are included in the Chinese counterpart. These writing styles include seal script (tensho), clerical script (reisho), regular script (kaisho), semi-cursive (gyōsho), and cursive (cāoshū). Japanese calligraphy is an example of how a utilitarian task, such as writing, can be transformed into an art.  

A calligraphy set consists of:

  1. Shitajiki: Black, soft mat. It provides a comfortable, soft surface.
  2. Bunchin: Metal stick to weight down the paper during writing.
  3. Hanshi: Special, thin calligraphy paper.
  4. Fude: Brush. There is a larger brush for writing the main characters and a smaller one for writing the artist's name. The small brush, however, can be used for the characters, too.
  5. Suzuri: Heavy black container for the ink.
  6. Sumi: Solid black material that must be rubbed in water in the suzuri to produce the black ink which is then used for writing. Of course, "instant ink" in bottles is also available.



These are some of Shodo's characters:


Human - Hito


Freedon - Jiyuu


Love - Ai


Goodness, good - Zen








Sources:
http://japanesestation.com/shodo-bentuk-seni-kaligrafi-jepang-yang-sangat-populer/
http://tdworkgroup.blogspot.co.id/2014/09/shodo-kaligrafi-jepang.html

Pictures:
google.com
http://www.japancalligraphy.eu/gallery.htm



Reported Speech

In the English language, there are two ways of conveying what someone else has said: direct/quoted speech and indirect/ reported speech.
Direct/quoted speech, involves quoting the exact words uttered by the person, within inverted commas or quotation marks. For example: She said, “I won’t be coming home tonight ” is an example of direct speech. Note that in this type of speech, a comma is most often used before starting the exact quote within the inverter commas.
Indirect/reported speech, on the other hand, does not have to be within quotes or reported word-to-word. In fact, unless one is relaying the exact words spoken, one should never use quotation marks. For example: She told us that she wouldn’t be coming home that night is an example of reported speech. Note that the verb tense necessarily changes in reported speech. This is because when we report speech, we are talking, obviously, about something that was said in the past. Hence, it becomes necessary to use the past tense of the verb.

DIRECT SPEECH
REPORTED SPEECH
He said, “I’m fine.”
He said that he was fine.
He said, “I’ve been married for three years.”
He said that he had been married for three years.
He said, “I went to the theater yesterday.”
He said that he had gone to the theatre the day before.
He said, “The show was already underway when the chief guest arrived.”
He said that the show was already underway when the chief guest arrived. (no change in tense)


When we are reporting what someone else said, we normally don’t use their exact words with quotation marks (direct speech), but instead we use indirect speech (also called reported speech). Indirect speech is introduced using certain phrases.



Example:
He says/said …
She explains/explained …
She tells/told me …
He asks/asked …

Reporting Verbs



Reporting verbs are used in reported speech


The most common reporting verbs are say and tell. However, there are a number of other reporting verbs that can be used instead of say or tell to make more efficient (i.e. shorter) statements and questions.


Consider this original statement in direct speech:
'I'm sure that everything will be alright'

If we reported the statement with say, we would get :

He said that he was sure that everything would be alright

This is an acceptable statement in English, if rather long. However, the words I'm sure that... in this sentence can have the function of assuring someone. Therefore, we can use the reporting verb assure

He assured me that everything would be alright
This is a) shorter, and b) makes the function of the sentence absolutely clear.





Common reporting verbs - say pattern


The following common reporting verbs follow the same pattern as say 

i.e. verb + (that) + clause :


admit
advise*
agree
announce
claim
complain
confirm
declare
explain
insist
mention
promise*
propose 
say
suggest
warn*

* also used with other patterns - see below





Common reporting verbs - tell pattern


The following common verbs follow the same pattern as tell 

i.e. verb + direct object + (that) + clause :


advise
assure
convince
inform
notify
persuade
promise
reassure
remind
tell
warn





Reporting actions : requests, promises etc


These are usually reported using an infintive structure :



reporting verb + infintive with to

Examples:
They argreed to pay the legal costs.
He promised to come as soons as possible.


Common reporting verbs that follow this pattern are :

agree
ask
claim
demand
offer
promise
propose
refuse
threaten


Some verbs can be followed by an object and infintive :

reporting verb + direct object + infintive with to


Examples:
He reminded me to call Kath.
She warned them not to mention it.

Common reporting verbs that follow this pattern are :

advise
ask
beg
convince
encourage
forbid
instruct
invite
order
persuade
remind
tell
urge
warn (not to)





Reporting verbs followed by a gerund



Some reporting verbs are followed by a gerund, not an infinitive :



Direct speech : 'Why don't we have the party at Peter's place?'
Reported speech : She suggested having the party at Peter's place.

Common reporting verbs that can be followed by a gerund are :

admit
deny
mention
proposed
report
suggest

NB All of these reporting verbs can also use a verb + that + clause structure (see above).

Compare :
He admitted that he had taken the money.
He admitted taking the money.

She proposed setting up a committee.
She proposed that we set up a committee.

He mentioned seeing Martin.
He mentioned that he had seen Martin

The sentences in each pair have the same meaning.

Change of persons/pronouns

If there is a pronoun in Direct Speech, it has possibly to be changed in Reported Speech, depending on the siutation.
  • Direct Speech → Susan: “I work in an office.”
  • Reported Speech → Susan said (that) she worked in an office.
Here I is changed to she.