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September 15, 2005

GMail in Tagalog

Different GMail?
I learned about this Gmail feature from Yugatech. After reading, I tried it out at once and, personally, I find the feature more annoying (and funny) than helpful. Instead of reading words in pure Tagalog, I get a muddled mixture of English and Tagalog words or Taglish. It's like I'm talking to a stereotypical colehiyala (Konyo English). Can't blame the translators though, for there are no direct Tagalog translations for common Internet words which most computer savvy Metro Manila folks would understand better in English. Take for instance, as shown in the image, the word Mail. I think it's koreo in Tagalog (I might be mistaken). But technically, the word is E-mail. So what should be the right Tagalog word? Kuryenteng Koreo? Eh? I don't know my Tagalog anymore.

Another word is burador. I tried to understand this word, until I gave up and went back to English language setting just to see what the word is in English. It was draft. Hahaha. I thought it was related to something connected to erasers (come to think of it, constant erasures would apply to sketches or drafts).

Now for the word spam, I know this is junk e-mail. But speak spam to ordinary folks here and most would recognize it as delicious canned luncheon meat or food resembling MaLing. And of course, the word basura. This is trash. No doubt about that. Trash indeed.

Now, like burador, etiketa made me scratch my head twice before I reverted back to English setting again. Etiketa meant label. I prefer label. I prefer to say, "Basahin mo ang label ng bote" than "Basahin mo ang etiketa ng bote" (eh?).

I suppose it's a way for Google Mail to include a Tagalog version for those individuals who don't speak in English (or who knows little English but prefers to use Tagalog). Good try though. But I'm thinking of using this language setting for a while until I get so annoyed I'll switch back to the real world of English.

Pardon me, Jose Rizal.

1 comment:

rmacapobre said...

i wish gmail will eventually support all filipino languages. tagalog is spoken by a minority of filipinoes who just happens to be at the seat of political and economic power in the nation. similar to mandarin and beijing.

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Known to be the webmaster of the defunct Taym Matsing website (well, that's old news now...)