Welcome to ViiKii

Hi there!

Welcome to Project ViiKii. o

Here’s a group of students from different parts of the world, dreaming of a world without language barriers. From deep down in our hearts, we believe in the possibility of realizing a pre-Babellian universality, where everyone can communicate with anyone. Our aim, though, reaches far beyond the concept of language. Project ViiKii is more about sharing cultures, letting people truly appreciate their diversity. All these talks about world peace sound worn out with those beauty contest interviews (“Thank you for choosing me – kiss kiss - I’m overwhelmed to be standing here today, as Miss Universe I’ll do my best to bring about world peace, etc., etc.!!!”), but that doesn’t mean the concept itself is outdated; we still see our Transformers and Superman (Haha) fighting for it, don’t we? The key question here is why they keep coming back! People keep fighting all around the planet, shaming the nowadays almost-trite term globalization. Bam there in Iraq, Boom here in Serbia…. Wouldn’t us earthians become real chum-chums if we could talk and be heard more freely, understand where one another’s coming from, experience and understand different cultural backgrounds and value systems? It’s not such a far-off dream (I already hear you snorting! ), you know, come to think of it; breaking down the language barrier could be a grand step towards this goal – just think! Watch the most popular soap-operas in places outside your country where they have a totally different lifestyle, get a sense of their idea of life, what makes them happy or angry there… Vice versa for those on the other side of the border, and what comes out of it? You all understand each other better, feel closer in distance and mind… less miscommunication. Look, we’re not pulling your leg, this is serious!

Folks keep asking us, “gees, is this about those fancy auto-translation machines you always see on the Sci-Fi Channel? Ones you talk into and get these eerie mechanic voices in all sorts of other languages?” …. Haha. You wish. Language isn’t simply some tool for conveying information and logic – it’s more about emotion, culture, and context, there’s this whole undercurrent to be captured, or else the essential part of communication’s just lost. It’s not about the surface meaning; it’s the ‘life,’ the ‘human’ there. Borat can’t be so funny to people who aren’t familiar with those Hollywood clichés and US consumer culture, right? Can machines capture such subtle sentiments, offer cultural backgrounds, explain the hidden meanings? Why do you think Asimov’s smart robots go through hell to become ‘human’?

Yes, Human! Our world consists of humans, people – of the people, by the people, and for the people… so of course, its languages are all about people. We people are who make, use, and live in all these languages; we built language, and so its barriers, which means that we’re the ones to tear these walls down. No super-power can do this alone, we must come together to do this, hail the potential of joined force! We already see wonders created by collaboration, made possible by WWW, don’t we?

ViiKii can be a break-through, imagine how you could watch all the fun videos out there in the world, ones you couldn’t even access cuz they were in all these different languages… you can practice language skills, or simply enjoy, and with all the other people doing the same, everyone’d get a step closer to ultimately understanding what goes on out there, and why. For this ‘dream come true,’ we need none other than YOUR help. Every single contribution you make to our ViiKii system, whether it’s just one word or sentence, will pave the way towards the realization of a grand cultural “Silk Road,” transmitting numerous local contents all over the world, beyond language barriers