[WG: I18N & L10N] Automagic translations (was: How long does it take to translate Sakai CLE)
Jim Eng
jimeng at umich.edu
Wed Jul 3 06:09:37 PDT 2013
I recently used the public page for google translate because I wanted to understand some facebook updates posted in Turkish. FB showed undecipherable Bing translations. In most cases, the Google translations were much better. That may be why Google charges and Bing doesn't yet charge for use of their API. But it may also indicate something about the quality of translations from the two services.
I'm guessing the quality of the translation is somewhat dependent on the language. It also seems like translating simple phrases in the UI is "easier" than translating arbitrary Facebook posts with typos, place names, etc.
Jim
On Jul 2, 2013, at 7:27 PM, Steve Swinsburg <steve.swinsburg at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks Zhen. I'm using Bing Translate for this, since IIRC google now charge for their one. Strange it's not the other way around ;)
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On 03/07/2013, at 1:32, Zhen Qian <zqian at umich.edu> wrote:
>
>> I will second here. The automatic translation could provide a base and save a lot of FTEs for the community.
>>
>> The precision rate is getting much better nowadays in macine translation. Besides Windows products, Bing Translate has been used in places like Facebook - with the default "Community and machine translators" setting, users can submit their own translations and override the machine result if they finds problem. Twitter is joining the group now: (http://tinyurl.com/m7fkopv).
>>
>> I guess we can follow the same route.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> - Zhen
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 2, 2013 at 9:13 AM, Steve Swinsburg <steve.swinsburg at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I think people would much rather just adjust one or two words than have to start from scratch.
>>
>> I actually spot checked the French translation that was provided to me from a native speaker against my automated one and out of 15 sentences, only one word was different.
>>
>> cheers,
>> Steve
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 2, 2013 at 10:47 PM, Jean-Francois Leveque <jean-francois.leveque at upmc.fr> wrote:
>> My experience tells me that having a bad translation is worse than having no translation. YMMV.
>>
>> My advice would be to have someone who knows well both the language translated into and the portlets check the translation.
>>
>> cheers,
>> J-F
>>
>> On 28/06/2013 16:04, Steve Swinsburg wrote:
>> I just gave the Autoi18n app a spin and it still works, hurrah! I'm
>> actually going to use it to do a bunch of translations for a few
>> portlets of mine.
>>
>> cheers,
>> Steve
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 11:10 PM, Steve Swinsburg
>> <steve.swinsburg at gmail.com <mailto:steve.swinsburg at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> It was just a quick and dirty proof of concept. It doesn't identify
>> the ones that need translation but it would be daily simple to scan
>> the source and find them. Like I said, needs some work :) Any
>> automation here would be a good start IMO.
>>
>> Sent from my iPad
>>
>> On 26/06/2013, at 21:49, Neal Caidin <neal.caidin at apereo.org
>> <mailto:neal.caidin at apereo.org>> wrote:
>>
>> Cool! Does your program have, or is there a reasonable way, to
>> identify all the files which need translating in Sakai? Or does
>> one have to pass the properties files for translating one-by-one?
>>
>> Might be a dumb question, I realize, but just curious.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Neal
>>
>> On Jun 26, 2013, at 7:30 AM, Steve Swinsburg
>> <steve.swinsburg at gmail.com <mailto:steve.swinsburg at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> I wrote a little utility that automatically translates a
>> properties file into various languages.
>>
>> https://github.com/steveswinsburg/auto-i18n
>>
>> It's been neglected for a while and I think the API it uses has
>> been deprecated (oops) but it could easily be cleaned up. This
>> would give a legup to anyone starting on translations. I realise
>> that no amount of automation can replace a native speaker, but at
>> least you don't need to start from zero.
>>
>> I am surprised it takes 6 months of time. That signals to me that
>> we need a far better i18n strategy. Centralised properties files,
>> reducing the number of duplicates, whatever it takes. A few
>> months of code to save hundreds of thousands of
>> dollars/euros/pounds/yen is a wise investment IMO.
>>
>> cheers,
>> Steve
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 9:15 PM, Diego del Blanco Orobitg
>> <diego.delblanco.sakai at gmail.com
>> <mailto:diego.delblanco.sakai at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> As a first stimation, without enter in real measurement we
>> calculated some time ago about three months, 2 people working
>> on it. Translating and obviously testing the sense of the
>> translations and the correct behaviour of each screen. For
>> sakai real trained people that knows code and functionality
>> maybe a little less.
>>
>> Diego del Blanco
>>
>> El 26/06/2013 12:17, "Jean-Francois Leveque"
>> <jean-francois.leveque at upmc.fr
>> <mailto:jean-francois.leveque at upmc.fr>> escribió:
>>
>> Hi fellow translators,
>>
>> While I've been involved in translating, I haven't been
>> involved in
>> measuring the amount of effort of the group doing the
>> French translation.
>>
>> Do you have numbers that could help potential translators
>> who want to
>> plan a translation?
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Jean-François
>>
>>
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