The second analysis on that post is also pretty interesting, digging
into the types of messages on twitter…

(Thanks!)

http://blog.textwise.com/?p=222

Cheers!!

@TSSVeloso

Ah, the incentives of learning new languages, the rifts and bridges between cultures, and the context of culture missed by simple translation between languages. A weighty topic I'm not sure I can give due justice.

(what is the LOL equivalent in German, Flemish, Dutch, etc.?)

http://blog.ryancoleman.ca/2006/05/google-what-...

Meaning, it organizes a priori currently.

Interesting to take the thought further to consider digital language; how many terms are taken from non-English languages? What abbreviations have emerged in non-English languages that are understood as widely as LOL, OMG, FTW, etc.?

Also, let's remember that even within English, digital languages emerge within communities as a way to shorten words and embed context. 4chan, for example.

Portuguese is already the second most spoken language on Twitter, and for what I read around here, this is having an impact towards the learning of a second language – mainly English.

And I think that is the grand sociological effect the “End of Distance” brings to not so developed countries: pushing towards the individual need for expanding his knowledge – which is, by the way, a very natural Human characteristic.

As we all know, a great idea is not an exclusivity of more developed countries, and while countries like Brazil, China and others are catching up, due to the relative”easiness” of the English language, we don't see the same effort from other nations, like the US or France, in expanding their use of foreign languages as a natural part of a living growing system of Human knowledge exchange.

I doubt we'll ever be able to manage a unique systematic language for that exchange. There are too many differences between cultures, and more than an opportunity, I think it is a business need to learn how to interact with those cultures.

An interesting twist that your post got me thinking about was the origin of a digital language. A lot of people think language originates from the sound something makes, the emotion it brings, its rhythm, etc. The web has furthered that theory but we've added the concept of medium. For much of the web's purposes, brevity is key and thus we get things like “lul”, “omg”, etc. It's interesting to think of tagging content with a new digital language to break down the barriers you've described. A dewey decimal system, if you will, for our age.

As with any problem of this sort, there are at least two opposing strategies: Organize ex post data or orchestrate a priori. I'm not sure what's more practical here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_mDTLphIVY

It's a tricky question and hard to answer. Maintaining a culture and its language is great, communicating in different languages is way harder. The only reason Facebook saw tremendous growth was after starting to support other languages.

I believe the business opportunity *is* to support multi-language by involving the community who automatically acts as a marketing driver.