1309 Blessed Michael Rua: communication and language
austraLasia 1309

Blessed Michael Rua:  communication and language

SEOUL/DALAT: 29th October 2005 --  A quick perusal of the 'Annuario' indicates that two communities of the hundred or more communities in EAO are named after Blessed Michael Rua:  one in Seoul, Korea, and one in Dalat, Vietnam.  The former, with three members, is the communications centre of the Korea province, looking after Don Bosco Media publishing and the Salesian Bulletin.  The latter, with no fewer than 70 members, is the post novitiate community for Vietnam.  austraLasia takes the opportunity to wish these two communities in particular, a happy feastday, but extends the good wishes to all.
    A 'past pupil' from Dalat, now a missionary, has begun a project intended to help all of his Vietnamese confreres throughout the world - he has begun to add Vietnamese terms to SELECT, the Salesian lexicon.  At this point, there is just the 'A' (English) page completed, and there is a general invitation to any Vietnamese speaker to take a look at this page and offer any correction that may be required, since the generous individual who has begun the process does not claim to know Italian or English to the extent where he can be certain he has picked up all the correct meanings.
    In fact, his effort, like the outstanding effort of the Chinese confrere who has completed some 80 percent of the Chinese terms in SELECT, is to be much applauded.  In both instances, an open invitation is extended to speakers of Vietnamese and Chinese to add to or correct (but not to complain about!) translations so far offered.
    For the Vietnamese version, just the 'A' page is done.  It is enough to open Bosconet at www.bosconet.aust.com and click on SELECT at the top.  In the English list that appears, click on the first term with a Vietnamese equivalent and the whole 'A' page will be available by scrolling.
    Here are two possibilities: (1) You wish to offer a correction to any of the items? Email your correction, quoting the Italian or English term and the Vietnamese correction.  austraLasia's computer 'speaks' Vietnamese, so we can read your correction and ask around for comment on it. (2) You wish to help in this project and would be prepared to do a page - 'B', or 'C' etc?  Just email to say you would be willing to receive a page, and the page will be sent to you as an attachment for you to return once you have completed the task.  20 contributors along these lines would have the job done in a week!
    Of  course, the same offer is open to Korean, Japanese, Tagalog, Tetum, Bahasa....
...
    One small point: do not forget to refresh your screen the first time you open SELECT because the 'old' version may not show the Vietnamese script...and of course if your computer is not set up to read complex scripts, this exercise is of academic interest only!

VOCABULARY
perusal: take a look at
annuario: year book (formerly the Elenco)
applauded: congratulated
academic: in this context it means 'not practical'
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