MESSAGE BOARD Internet Society    VIDEO Correspondent MaryKathleen Flynn reports on the cultural barriers that exist on the Web. Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K    More Information: There are a great many translation services on the Internet, and several of them are free. Of course, many of these services just translate the passage or Web page by figuring out some words and conjugating verbs, and can make some serious - and frequently amusing - mistakes. However, if you just want to get the gist of a passage, these tools will do. Here's a good way to test them and have a little fun at the same time. Take a passage, one that you've either written yourself or know well - say, the Preamble of the U.S. Declaration of Independence - and let the tool translate it into another language. Then have it translate it back to English, and see what you get. AltaVista's Babelfish can translate phrases or an entire Web page. It translates to or from English, and supports several major European languages, including Spanish, German and Portugese. You can also download a plug-in for your browser that adds a Translation button which automatically sends the Web page or highlighted text to Babelfish for instant translation. Douglas Adams fans will recognize the tool's name, which comes from "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Babylon, another downloadable tool, has more supported languages. In addition to the common European languages, it also works with Dutch, Japanese and Hebrew. Several services, including QuikTrans and The Translation Group, will translate documents, pages, or even whole sites for a fee. Targeted at business users, this gives the obvious benefit of having a native speaker translate your text with the context and clarity a computer still can't provide.

January 12, 2000
Web posted at: 2:06 p.m. EST (1906 GMT)

By CNN Correspondent Mary Kathleen Flynn

NEW YORK (CNN) - Euro-Disney in France is perhaps one of the most visible and controversial places to see the march of American culture across the planet. Julius Caesar conquered Gaul with Roman legions, but the U.S. is doing it with Mickey Mouse, and the Internet.

The Internet started in the U.S., and that's still where it is most dominant. Almost two thirds of the world's Web traffic comes from the U.S. Japan is second, with 7 percent, followed by Germany with 5 percent. Spanish language Web sites, one of the fastest growing Internet segments, make up less than 2 percent.

Even though the number of Web users from outside the U.S. is expected to grow faster than that of Americans, most of what you find on the Web is American. Some countries find that threatening.

"A lot of governments fear American imperialism of all kinds, whether it is our food or our Internet," says Esther Dyson, chair of EDventure Holdings, and interim chairman of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers. "I think that the people like McDonald's hamburgers and they also like the Internet, so it's kind of the government trying to control what people do."

At the United Nations, delegates follow the debate by listening to translators. That may stop the U.N. from turning into a Tower of Babel, but you often miss the subtleties of a language.

Web-based tools, like Transparent Language or Altavista's Babelfish, help you get the gist of a Web site in another language. But not everyone likes that idea.

Several French organizations have been fighting for years to protect the French language and culture from being swamped by English words and American influences. One group, Defense of the French Language, has launched an effort to keep French Web sites in French.

"It is the role of the association to alert those who edit sites that most of the time there are French words to replace the English and it is unnecessary to use English when there exists a French word," says Marceau Dechamps, a spokesman for the group. "There's also the weight of the keepers of the language."

If the group and its supporters refuse to visit sites that use English, Dechamps says, it will encourage those sites to change their habits.

Despite efforts to limit the spread of the Internet by language, politics or economics, the Web continues to spread across borders. As more countries add Web sites in their own language, there will be more pressure to translate those pages into other languages.

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