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If I led a campaign in America to do away with Mexican words (don't you go saying nacho, its corn or flour chips with cheese, meat and onions) or Asian words (don't call it sushi, its just raw fish) I'd be labeled a bigot. The reason we say sushi and nacho is because those foods originated in those countries and those are culturally accepted names. Its a bit of diversity that makes America what it is. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but firewalls, dubbing, panning, zooming and chat are all products of American society. If they weren't invented in the States, they were certainly made famous there. Ahmadinejad's hatred of the West is beyond obvious - diversity is not something that will be allowed in "his" culture.
The reason that it was spun in a negative light was not so much that they translated all these words, but that all governmental agencies, newspapers and publications will have to cease the use of foreign words. Its not the translating thats the issue here, its the loss of freedom of speech and isolationist xenophobia. Having an official language is one thing, not being able to use commonly accepted foreign words mixed into the language is an entirely different story.
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Good idea ... Not sure why it got spun this way
The language academy's been at this for years. They didn't "replace" English words that were already in Farsi. They came up with a set of standard Farsi translations in about 40 different fields, including cinematography, geology, and technology.
For instance, my brother didn't used to know much English, but he knew "dub", "frame", "pan", "zoom", etc..., because of he was a camera man there.
I don't see a problem with introducing Farsi translations for those. I don't believe "frame" is a universally known word. In fact, the academy specifically accepts words of Latin origin if they have universal use, like "cinema" and "pizza".
If you look at the list of 2000 words, over 20 different reports by some 10 to 20 experts per each report, you'd probably agree that there should be a translation for them.
I really didn't like FOX's (and others') spin on the story. In fact, they reported the "pizza" translation inaccurately. There is not now nor was there ever a translation for "pizza". But without that little gimick, the story would have seemed fine, and FOX wasn't having that.
A comedian made a joke on a sitcom, where jokes belong, and FOX used it to trivialize the work of hundreds of serious people.
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