What did they say?

Are you searching for information and you run across a web site in French or Spanish or another language? What do you do? Grab a dictionary with English/French or English/Spanish? Muddle through with your high school language skills? How do you figure out what it means?

I read two articles* today about Bastille Day (July 14th) and the new web site that lists those who lost their heads to the Guillotine, Les Guillotines de la Revolution francaise.

Both authors referred to Google : Language Tools. I went and tested the site- very interesting. This is a helpful tool if you find a site in another language- or if you want to share a site with someone whose first language is not English.

I can see a teacher using the Language Tool in a conference with a student who just may not be very clear about what the English words mean. The tool might be helpful for a student (or anyone) who wants to hone their understanding of a language other than the one they use at home. For travelers this might be an easy tool to get hints about what that sign means.

Through GALILEO, ProQuest offers translators for the directions in their database. Once an article is selected, ProQuest also offers a Translate document box. See if you can understand what the author is trying to say when you read the article in another language.

To use GALILEO at home you will need the password which you may get from your Georgia librarian.



*articles:

Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter : Guillotine Victims Listed Online

Genealogy / Kenneth H. Thomas Jr : Web site lists guillotine victims, AJC , Sunday July 13, 2008, M3

-kls