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This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and Pakistan

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Re: This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and Pakistan

#121

Post by dsrguru »

nekopa wrote: post #115
dsrguru wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Yiddish scholar once said that "a language is a dialect with an army and a navy." It's really true. One might think that mutual intelligibility (ability for speakers of one to make themselves fully understood by speakers of the other) would be the standard for differentiating languages from dialects, but the distinction really ends up just being political. The spoken forms of Hindi and Urdu are entirely mutually in…

A side note: as a teenager I spent one summer working in a clothing store in London, with a bunch of Spaniards and Italians. They spoke to each other using their respective tongue, and said they could understand each other. Just basics of course. Maybe someone from Spain or Italy could chime in here?

As with the Arabic and Chinese language families, different varieties of Romance languages are similar enough in syntax and vocabulary that speakers can kind of make themselves understood to each other if they speak slowly and choose their words carefully. Same with lots of closely related languages, e.g. German and Dutch. But they're not nearly mutually intelligible to the degree that American English and most varieties of British English are or that Hindi and Urdu are.

Regarding the Spanish/Italian example, the father of a friend of mine was fluent in Spanish, French, and Portuguese. Using an Italian grammar guide and his knowledge of Romance vocabulary from the other three languages, he learned Italian in a single flight from the US to Italy to the point where he was able to conduct business in Italy immediately upon landing.

Re: This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and Pakistan

#122

Post by raverbashing »

nekopa wrote: post #115
dsrguru wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Yiddish scholar once said that "a language is a dialect with an army and a navy." It's really true. One might think that mutual intelligibility (ability for speakers of one to make themselves fully understood by speakers of the other) would be the standard for differentiating languages from dialects, but the distinction really ends up just being political. The spoken forms of Hindi and Urdu are entirely mutually in…

A side note: as a teenager I spent one summer working in a clothing store in London, with a bunch of Spaniards and Italians. They spoke to each other using their respective tongue, and said they could understand each other. Just basics of course. Maybe someone from Spain or Italy could chime in here?

Yes, the basics are ok to understand (even though Spaniards speak too fast)

Re: This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and Pakistan

#123

Post by piyush_soni »

thrownaway2424 wrote: post #43

Yes I was suitably manipulated. Good job, mass emotional manipulation team! But I am surprised they showed people searching for flight status and weather. Google Now is supposed to already know you're going to Delhi and just show you the weather there without you asking. Same for the flight status.

It is supposed to know only when you have the itinerary sent to your Gmail. And some people might just disable Google Now and/or 'location services' altogether.

Re: This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and Pakistan

#124

Post by marshray »

devnetfx wrote: post #3

This is a beautiful ad and will make you emotional. As a person of Indian background I was able to relate to it easily but I wonder what others think of it? Are you able to feel the strong emotions based on reading subtitles or does language hamper the feelings and it loses its impact. Kudos to the team involved in this and thanks for posting this.

I haven't felt such loss from a video since Snoopy Come Home.

Re: This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and Pakistan

#125

Post by marshray »

ankurdhama wrote: post #112

I hope this is still hacker news rather than some emotional fools forum who ignore realities.

Don't worry, I'm sure someone will come along to comment on the web design on some computer screen in the background. And that will be OK.

Re: This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and Pakistan

#126

Post by kranner »

denzil_correa wrote: post #120
kranner wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for these links. Just a bit unlikely that Ali would be able to read 'saunf' in Devanagari, isn't it?

> Just a bit unlikely that Ali would be able to read 'saunf' in Devanagari, isn't it? Why?

Because Devanagari isn't taught at the school level in Pakistan, I'd guess.

Re: This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and Pakistan

#127

Post by VMG »

ecthiender wrote: post #116
r0h1n wrote: post #64

Colour me cynical, but when a corporation is under fire from consumers, regulators and activists, a soppy and heartstring-tugging ad is exactly what the doctors order . It is literally Google saying, "Oh look, cute puppies!" when faced with a global barrage of criticism about its disdain for user privacy or its own past promises.

Bang on! I don't think you are being cynical, you are being true! People across borders should stop being emotional over an advertisement by a multinational corporation. If they really have to become emotional, there is plenty of literature on this topic in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. And if they even want to take actions, there are many NGOs trying to ease up the visa procedure, raising awareness among the peopl…

Do you prefer the generic "people fiddling with their devices on a sunny day, female voice playing buzzword bingo in the background"? Props for Google for being ballsy.

I also love how people throw in the "multinational" qualifier as if this makes a company that much more evil.

Re: This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and Pakistan

#128

Post by bhups »

notatoad wrote: post #53
jtchang wrote: post #26

Amazing work! What strikes me most is how little the language matters. You don't even have to watch it with subtitles to see how solid the editing was. Kudos to the entire team that worked on these videos.

the subtitles might have been a bit more necessary if all the on-screen text wasn't in english. That seemed like a strange choice for an ad produced by Google India.

English is widely used throughout India, as it's the "national link language" according to the constitution. Most advertisements, street signs and stores contain lots of English.

Re: This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and Pakistan

#129

Post by saraid216 »

ecthiender wrote: post #116
r0h1n wrote: post #64

Colour me cynical, but when a corporation is under fire from consumers, regulators and activists, a soppy and heartstring-tugging ad is exactly what the doctors order . It is literally Google saying, "Oh look, cute puppies!" when faced with a global barrage of criticism about its disdain for user privacy or its own past promises.

Bang on! I don't think you are being cynical, you are being true! People across borders should stop being emotional over an advertisement by a multinational corporation. If they really have to become emotional, there is plenty of literature on this topic in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. And if they even want to take actions, there are many NGOs trying to ease up the visa procedure, raising awareness among the peopl…

It would not surprise me if Google actually was taking action. They've been known to chime in on national politics here and there.
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