Cardinal Points

Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: FUSE

You sit down at your computer, the center of your academic and social responsibilities.

Instinctively, you type in your password for your AIM screen name.

You are now reconnected to the outside world - or at least to its inhabitants' colorful away messages.

And, without a thought, you pull up your Facebook page.

We live in a world where relationships are not official until the Facebook status is changed, a virtual "poke" is equivalent to a sexual advance, and an inbox message is intimate communication.

We stalk each other's walls, tag each other's pictures and graffiti obscene pictures on each other's pages.

All of these practices and social obligations are a celebration of communication through the English language.

Until now.

Facebook is now available in Spanish, and will soon be accessible in French and German, according to a PR Newswire release.

"Nearly 1,500 Spanish-speaking users on Facebook chose to be part of the effort and translated the site from English to Spanish in less than four weeks," the press release reports.

Spanish speaking users have volunteered to translate the site into their own dialects, and the same process will be used for the French and German versions.

With the high number of international students at Plattsburgh State, the Facebook expansion may have an effect on cross-cultural communication and social networking among students.

According to Catrillia Young, assistant director of International Student Services, PSUC is home to "a good number" of Spanish and French speakers, and a few speakers of German, although the center did not have any specific statistics compiled on language breakdown.

"The amount that students are on Facebook fascinates me," Young said with a laugh.

Although Young could not say for sure how this change will affect PSUC students, she said it will be a step in the right direction to developing a better understanding of other cultures.

"I think there is such a shift in how information is being spread throughout the world," Young said. "If we don't encourage young people to be aware of other cultures, including their languages, we won't be able to keep up as a nation with the world."

Jean Ouedraogo, chair of Foreign Languages and Literature at PSUC, agreed.

Ouedraogo discussed the importance of remaining open to other languages, which can tend to be a problem in American culture.

Continued...

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