On Friday, 28 בOctober 2005 13:46, Uri Bruck wrote:
> I don't know what you've seen, but since I actually am a translator I'm
> sure I've seen more translations than you have, both good and bad.
I'd like to split this to separate issues:
- Crappy work exists in all professional fields -- you can bet I've
seen enough shoddy programming code written by keyboard monkeys
just like you've seen "translations" done by the neighbour's son
for a bargain price of 10NIS/page.
(actually I've seen enough of these as my wife happen to be a
translator [non-technical though...])
- There are many people that can do quality work without belonging
to the specific profession -- I've encountered some very good
physicists that wrote quality programs. Likewise we all know there
are people who can do quality translation even if their day to day
work is selling insurance policies.
So the fight against lowering the quality bar is common to many fields
(translation included), and using only "professionals" with some title
for a specific job does not, regretfully, provide any guaranties.
> The terminology resources a technical translator has are larger than
> what you've managed to piece together. Not all those resources can be
> placed on the web.
For our mission, the ideal translator has:
- Mastery of the source language (better than my mediocre English).
- Mastery of the target language.
- Knowledge of the problem domain.
One important advantage in (free)-software translation is the
incremental improvement that exist through the lifecycle of
the program (both in code and translation). This means we can
try to improve the quality incrementally (Just like Wikipedia does).
I see professional translators (and linguists for that matter) as very
helpfull in:
- Setting/improving the framework we work by -- so we don't miss important
language aspects.
- Experts for consultation in tough places.
- High level QA -- not check individual translations (it's a waste of
a scarce resource, as we don't have many of these people),
but rather check our guidelines, dictionary schema etc.
Want to jump on the bandwagon?
--
Oron Peled Voice/Fax: +972-4-8228492
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.actcom.co.il/~oron
ICQ UIN: 16527398
"Linux is free. Clue is not." - Eric S. Raymond
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