So the idea that this professor is interpreting strings of Chinese characters and giving "Mandarin" translations (by the way, Chinese has lots and lots of different spoken dialects, but they are all written in pretty much the same way!), and then suddenly suggests translating them into "kanji" (or Japanese) makes as much sense as me reading a string of text and then saying, "Oh, you wanted the German translation? I was giving you the English translation!"
This might apply (in the Latin alphabet anyway) to "false friends" (words that were once cognate but have since changed meaning) such as you frequently find between English and French (frex, "une fille jolie" may or may not be cheerful but she is definitely pretty,and she's a human girl not a young female horse), but -- as my example shows -- it only applies to single words. Anyone who could actually read English or French would be able to tell that "une fille jolie" is in French and "a jolly filly" is in English, because of the difference in the article and the syntax.
The NSA hires lots of language analysts. You can learn that by looking at their public job postings. They wouldn't need to recruit some outside university professor to get Chinese translations done.
Chinese being one of the NSA's main languages of concern, after all. Now, if the text was in Sumerian, I could see recruiting outside assistance.
Getting a security clearance is a big deal. The NSA is not going to let a non-cleared person have access to classified material without one. They can't just grab some expert off the street and say, "We really need you to help us with this Top Secret project, but you have to promise not to tell anyone about it!" Umm, no. Yes, I know they do that on NCIS all the time. Anyone who has ever worked for any branch of the federal government falls over themselves laughing at that.
At a minimum you must sign a security agreement, which gives them the legal right to drop your ass in Federal prison, at least semi-incommunicado, if you reveal the matters about which you have agreed to keep secret. No Sinister Death Squads required. Real Federal powers are much more effective.
Oh, and yes, you get a trial. Closed-court, of course. And don't expect to get off on a technicality.
The NSA is a large federal agency. It's subject to EEO laws just like every other branch of the government, and believe it or not, Dan Brown, girls do science nowadays. And cryptography and computer programming and engineering and linguistics and all the other things the NSA is interested in. Like NASA and other highly nerdy agencies full of scientists and engineering types, no doubt there's still a preponderance of males in certain fields, but it's not the sausage-fest you seem to be imagining.
But his main character finds this so improbable that he laughs at the idea that there might actually be a female of the species working somewhere in this boys-only treehouse.
LOL!!!
That might have been true forty years ago, though even back then I suspect some talented females worked for the NSA. Today -- well, I'd guess there are probably more men than women working for them, but not by a ridiculous proportion.
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Languages, the NSA and Women
Date: 2009-12-13 11:29 pm (UTC)This might apply (in the Latin alphabet anyway) to "false friends" (words that were once cognate but have since changed meaning) such as you frequently find between English and French (frex, "une fille jolie" may or may not be cheerful but she is definitely pretty,and she's a human girl not a young female horse), but -- as my example shows -- it only applies to single words. Anyone who could actually read English or French would be able to tell that "une fille jolie" is in French and "a jolly filly" is in English, because of the difference in the article and the syntax.
The NSA hires lots of language analysts. You can learn that by looking at their public job postings. They wouldn't need to recruit some outside university professor to get Chinese translations done.
Chinese being one of the NSA's main languages of concern, after all. Now, if the text was in Sumerian, I could see recruiting outside assistance.
Getting a security clearance is a big deal. The NSA is not going to let a non-cleared person have access to classified material without one. They can't just grab some expert off the street and say, "We really need you to help us with this Top Secret project, but you have to promise not to tell anyone about it!" Umm, no. Yes, I know they do that on NCIS all the time. Anyone who has ever worked for any branch of the federal government falls over themselves laughing at that.
At a minimum you must sign a security agreement, which gives them the legal right to drop your ass in Federal prison, at least semi-incommunicado, if you reveal the matters about which you have agreed to keep secret. No Sinister Death Squads required. Real Federal powers are much more effective.
Oh, and yes, you get a trial. Closed-court, of course. And don't expect to get off on a technicality.
The NSA is a large federal agency. It's subject to EEO laws just like every other branch of the government, and believe it or not, Dan Brown, girls do science nowadays. And cryptography and computer programming and engineering and linguistics and all the other things the NSA is interested in. Like NASA and other highly nerdy agencies full of scientists and engineering types, no doubt there's still a preponderance of males in certain fields, but it's not the sausage-fest you seem to be imagining.
But his main character finds this so improbable that he laughs at the idea that there might actually be a female of the species working somewhere in this boys-only treehouse.
LOL!!!
That might have been true forty years ago, though even back then I suspect some talented females worked for the NSA. Today -- well, I'd guess there are probably more men than women working for them, but not by a ridiculous proportion.