I remember reading two or three years ago that Google researchers had developed an AI component for Google Translate, which revolutionized it. People woke up the day after the (secret) release and reported "hey, what happened? this is infinitely better!" I gave it a try at after reading that, and sure enough, there was a remarkable improvement -- although some lamented the demise of a popular source of amusement. I use it for Hebrew-English translation -- not a small challenge.
No one assumes that Google Translate will do a masterful job. It's a tool, not a professional translator and editor. (Just like Google is a search engine, not a professional research assistant). Perfect for landing pages on things like museum websites, "contact us", etc. Less so for exhibition texts, articles, and deep content, but its certainly better than nothing. If you have an fat budget for multiple-language translation and editing staff or services, fine. Most don't. (BTW it's a great time-saver for creating a draft that a human can then edit and improve.) Deliberately not putting the widget on a website seems the opposite of customer service. Yes, the visitor can copy and paste into Google Translate him/herself, but just having the widget there says "we want you to stay and read and understand us. Maybe this will help." Amalyah Keshet *Amalyah Keshet* *Copyright Management for Cultural Heritage, Jerusalem, Israel* *Senior Consultant, Naomi Korn Associates, London * On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 4:35 AM Matt Morgan <m...@concretecomputing.com> wrote: > We had the Google Translate widget on the Met's site, in just the visit > section, for a while during my time there, and then we added it to a > part of NYPL's site but I never managed to get it added to the whole > site and actually lost my job there because I wouldn't shut up about it. > True story! (I've had LOTS of other jobs since then, don't worry.) > > Anyway, the problem with human translation is this: you're already > pretty careful to get the English right, and probably a few people are > involved in the production and editing of any given page. Some or all of > them may actually be trained & experienced as professional editors in > English, and the educators/curators/content owners probably speak and > write English pretty fluently, perhaps even well. Basically, you spend a > lot of time getting the words right. How are you going to meet that > standard in even one other language? You're going to hire some outside > person who may or may not be good--it's hard to tell because none of you > are professionals in that language--and not edit it nearly as carefully > as the English because who's qualified to do that? And then it's so much > extra work, when you change the English a little bit, you'll probably > either just change the other languages in-house, with whatever local > speakers of that language you can find, or maybe put it off for now > since it really wasn't that big a change anyway. Over time you'll know > that the translations are kind of falling behind the primary pages, but > it'll be OK because everyone else is paying less attention to them than > you are, so it'll just become this thing that eats at you a little bit, > but you take comfort knowing that at least it's better than having no > translations at all. > > In case it's not obvious, if you're Canadian substitute "French and > English" for "English," and if you're Belgian or Moroccan or whatever, > substitute the four or six languages you're a pro at. However many it > is, it's not 100 and it's probably not even eight or nine. > > The problem with machine translation is exactly what Susan points out. > It has issues. Even when it's pretty good it's not very good at > technical terms, or colloquialisms, or proper names, or a dozen other > kinds of repeated issues. And your art or history or science museum > website is going to be about 30% those things. Probably 50% at the > Exploratorium. > > Here's the thing: even with all those issues, it still helps. If you > think of machine translation just as an aid to comprehension, and you > think of adding the widget to your site as a convenience, just to make > it easier for visitors to do something they can already do and you can't > stop them anyway, why not? Well I mean, that's what I thought and I lost > my job. But I still think it's a logical argument. And I haven't seen a > whole lot of museum websites succeed at human translation in more than a > couple languages, except on very limited sets of pages. > > There have been a couple major museum websites that provided the Google > translation widget on every page, as a convenience. The two that I > recall having it in the past no longer seem to provide it, so I have to > imagine they similarly had a champion for it who moved on (willingly, I > hope!) and their successors were less interested in fighting that fight. > > Anyway, here's my suggestion: try Google on a few of your pages in any > languages for which you have a local fluent speaker/reader and see how > well it works. I bet you'll find that it conveys the basic ideas > reasonably well, that it makes some really boneheaded mistakes, and that > about 100 out of 100 visitors will not be harmed by it. But I also bet > that if you share it with your colleagues from marketing, > communications, etc., you'll quickly get a sense of how politically > difficult it may be to roll it out. Exploratorium seems like the kind of > place that might be willing to try it ... but wow, I bet your stuff is > hard for machines to translate, so who knows. > > Best, > Matt > > On 10/22/2018 08:40 PM, Susan Edwards wrote: > > Hi Mark - > > > > I managed the localization work for the Getty's Visit section 4 years ago > > and can give you some tips. From an accessibility point of view, you want > > to have human-translated language, not use Google. In general translation > > services are ok, but they make mistakes. You also want to think about > > non-English language search engines and SEO in other languages as well. > So > > localization is not just about translation. Feel free to contact me - I > am > > happy to talk on the phone to discuss. > > > > Things have probably changed in the last 4 years - I do wonder if Google > > translate services, which are much more accessible these days through > > search, are more commonly accessed and used by users. But ideally a user > > from China, for example, isn't coming to your English pages and then > > clicking on a button to change the language. They shouldn't see your > > English page at all, and should just be sent directly to the Chinese > page. > > Again, this requires search optimization in that language, as well as > > language declaration on the pages. > > > > Susan > > > > Susan Edwards > > > > Associate Director, Digital Content > > > > HAMMER MUSEUM > > > > 10899 Wilshire Boulevard > > > > Los Angeles, CA 90024 > > > > 310-209-7921 > > > > sedwa...@hammer.ucla.edu > > > > On Mon, Oct 22, 2018 at 5:04 PM Megan Richardson < > > megan.richard...@museedelhistoire.ca> wrote: > > > >> The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam offers its whole website in Dutch and > >> English, and key visit information in 9 other languages. > >> > >> Megan Richardson > >> Directrice, Musée virtuel du Canada > >> Musée canadien de l'histoire > >> Director, Virtual Museum of Canada > >> Canadian Museum of History > >> 100 rue Laurier Street, Gatineau QC K1A 0M8 > >> T 819-776-7189 > >> > >> > >> > >> -----Original Message----- > >> From: mcn-l [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Mark Andrews > >> Sent: October-10-18 5:23 PM > >> To: mcn-l@mcn.edu > >> Subject: [MCN-L] Multilingual websites > >> > >> Hi. I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations about language > >> translation for museum websites. Currently, the Exploratorium has a > series > >> of single pages for visit planning for seven non-English languages > (e.g., > >> https://www.exploratorium.edu/es). But as we try to attract and serve > >> more non-English speakers, we're thinking about other approaches. > >> > >> For instance, for anyone who is using (or has used) a Google Translate > >> widget in your universal footer or header, did you find it successful? > Did > >> it get good usage? > >> > >> It occurred to me that I don't really have a sense of -- broadly -- how > >> people use foreign language websites. Are they translating at browser > level > >> (or device level), making a site-specific widget superfluous? Or is a > >> widget actually useful? > >> > >> Any insights or stats are appreciated! - Mark > >> > >> -- > >> > >> Mark Andrews | Director of Online Media > >> e x p l O r a t o r i u m > >> mandr...@exploratorium.edu > >> mobile: 415-830-1578 > >> _______________________________________________ > >> You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum > Computer > >> Network (http://www.mcn.edu) > >> > >> To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l@mcn.edu > >> > >> To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > >> http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > >> > >> The MCN-L archives can be found at: > >> http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/ > >> _______________________________________________ > >> You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum > Computer > >> Network (http://www.mcn.edu) > >> > >> To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l@mcn.edu > >> > >> To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > >> http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > >> > >> The MCN-L archives can be found at: > >> http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/ > >> > > _______________________________________________ > > You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum > Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) > > > > To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l@mcn.edu > > > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > > http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/ > > _______________________________________________ > You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer > Network (http://www.mcn.edu) > > To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l@mcn.edu > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/ > _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l@mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/
