Native speakers
SnakTranslating LibraryThing? (General Talk)
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1xtien
Just out of curiosity, do we have a policy on who should be translating? I'm in favor of having only native speakers translate into their own language, although I just contributed two words in French.
2MMcM
The collaborative system is inherently self-policing. There is no need for such a formal policy that I can see.
In the mad rush of initial translations when the system was introduced, there were solecisms of just the sort that beginning foreign students might produce. They were fixed by those who knew better and so far as I recall there was no grumbling about it.
If someone insisted on promoting their ignorance, like what goes on in Usenet's sci.lang, such as by repeatedly submitting a bad translation, that would be another matter. But things do not seem to be like that here.
Only translating into one's native language is a good rule of thumb, but that is for whole translations. When the work is piecemeal, one can just skip the hard parts. Or only contribute a couple of words that one knows confidently. Moreover, once you start requiring qualifications, why not insist on professional translators? Or qualifying exams?
In the mad rush of initial translations when the system was introduced, there were solecisms of just the sort that beginning foreign students might produce. They were fixed by those who knew better and so far as I recall there was no grumbling about it.
If someone insisted on promoting their ignorance, like what goes on in Usenet's sci.lang, such as by repeatedly submitting a bad translation, that would be another matter. But things do not seem to be like that here.
Only translating into one's native language is a good rule of thumb, but that is for whole translations. When the work is piecemeal, one can just skip the hard parts. Or only contribute a couple of words that one knows confidently. Moreover, once you start requiring qualifications, why not insist on professional translators? Or qualifying exams?
3xtien
I agree. I have done one or two words in French and German, the easy ones. Wouldn't feel comfortable doing whol texts. I guess the voting system protects us from bad translations, provided there's enough people watching.
I wasn't requiring qualifications. Most native speakers don't have formal qualifications as a translator, I think.
I wasn't requiring qualifications. Most native speakers don't have formal qualifications as a translator, I think.
4timspalding
The idea is that the wiki, with an added voting system, protects. I suspect it's working well for Germany and French. It could well misfire for one of the less popular languages, at least until they grow larger.
6xtien
There seems to be a scripting error in the French translation pages. It changes entries into "loading....".
I found some translations in the French pages that check out on babelfish, but not on a decent dictionary. Status was translated to statut, but that's not the right use of the word there. There were some similar mistranslations. Of course, I may be wrong, my knowledge of French is limited.
I do agree we need more reviewers there.
I found some translations in the French pages that check out on babelfish, but not on a decent dictionary. Status was translated to statut, but that's not the right use of the word there. There were some similar mistranslations. Of course, I may be wrong, my knowledge of French is limited.
I do agree we need more reviewers there.
