Calling all Spanish Speakers

When the Church has need of help from the technology community, we will post that need in this forum.
Kent Larsen-p40
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#11

Post by Kent Larsen-p40 »

dougk wrote:There are literally tens of thousands of people in the Church who speak both English and Spanish well enough to translate. Just in my own ward here at BYU, we have had several completely bilingual people (Hispanic or part-Hispanic), not to mention dozens of English speakers who have served Spanish-speaking missions. In addition to Spanish, we have (or have had) several who speak Mongolian, Japanese, Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese), Korean, German, Portuguese, French, Russian, and various other languages (many just because of missions, but quite a few have actually been native speakers from those countries). Some of those people already have volunteered to translate for the Church (mostly at the MTC, but I know of at least one who translated Mongolian for General Conference a couple years ago).

I don't think finding people who are capable of translating would be the problem, any more than the problem with doing indexing was finding people capable of reading names and typing them in. The problem is just showing people what they can do to help out and getting them to the site to do it. If there are problems with vocabulary or phrases, they would be more likely to occur with the technology-related terms than with Church phrases, but especially for a language like Spanish where so many Church members speak it, there are plenty of people who know the technology lingo in those languages. It's just a matter of whether or not they are the same few people who frequent the LDS Tech Forum.

While there is obviously (and rightfully so) a more rigorous process for translating things like scriptures, lesson manuals, and other doctrinally-sensitive materials, I think that it's definitely a great idea to get the community (maybe a larger community, not just those in this forum) involved in helping with translation for other less-important things like computer programs. Good luck!

-Doug
Doug is right, as is Russell. The biggest problem with making this successful is getting the right people here to help.

Tools is a large part of the problem. Russell suggests a glossary of terms would be helpful. He is right.

But, I found it rather difficult to try and check the translations in the format given. Comments in a forum (itself a difficult and perhaps out-moded way of communicating on the web, IMO) are a very difficult way to get translations done.

Unfortunately, I've not found any good software tool for collaborative translations, which is what would be ideal in this case. (the site http://traduwiki.org/ is very good, nearly what is needed - unfortunately, the creator hasn't yet released the sourcecode, although he says he will eventually).

A good collaborative translation tool will be wiki-like (a software innovation the Church has yet to take advantage of, probably due to control issues, I'd guess), and include the ability for collaborators to update a common glossary of terms, such as what Russell called for.

The problem with the above is that I found myself bouncing between multiple windows to consult the previous translation, the original English. I should have also had various pages on the church's websites open to review the terms others used for things like the Facilities Management offices and even words like Clerk and Technology Specialist. Since I'm not a local leader or even a member of a Spanish or Portuguese-speaking unit, I have no idea what are the terms for these things. Given enough time, I'll bet I could figure it out, but allowing members to contribute to a common glossary would make the process much faster.

Perhaps the administrators here on the LDSTech forum could give us a collaborative, wiki-like tool that would allow easy translations. I think that would be a great step forward, and allow the army of members who have some knowledge of various languages to help the Church.

And, if you really wanted to be helpful, such a tool could then be released as freeware, so others could set up collaborative translation sites for their own material. That would indeed be a service to the LDS community around the world.
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The_Earl
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#12

Post by The_Earl »

Kent Larsen wrote:Doug is right, as is Russell. The biggest problem with making this successful is getting the right people here to help.

Tools is a large part of the problem. Russell suggests a glossary of terms would be helpful. He is right.

<snip?

And, if you really wanted to be helpful, such a tool could then be released as freeware, so others could set up collaborative translation sites for their own material. That would indeed be a service to the LDS community around the world.

This is an interesting observation! I hadn't thought of a wiki with a glossary for translation, but that is a GREAT idea. I know a couple of people that write documentation for a living. They do exactly what you suggest. They translate general info into the language needed, then make a glossary for things like product or feature names.

I'll have to go bug them and see what they think would work best for a wiki style project.

This might be possible with existing WIKI software. I use includes to do some interesting things with PMWiki. It's not ideal, but it is functional.

Tom:

Is it possible that we could either get a list of translated 'church lingo', or that we could start such a list somewhere. It seems that the first step in this process is getting some of those things available.

Thanks
Barrie
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thedqs
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#13

Post by thedqs »

Kent Larsen wrote: I'm not a native speaker, so please excuse the quality of the translation, but I think the following might be a little better:

Keep it up and we might just get this perfected. BTW I do like your version better, I still was too literal.
- David
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thedqs
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#14

Post by thedqs »

The Earl wrote:This might be possible with existing WIKI software. I use includes to do some interesting things with PHPWiki. It's not ideal, but it is functional.
And wikis are a lot easier to get an initial translation done and then as more and more eyes look at it, it gets closer and closer to an actual translation.

In addition we don't have to keep and posting more and more to just change a few things.
- David
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Wiki hosting

#15

Post by The_Earl »

Tom:

Can we put this out on the web at large? I assume that since a translation project would not contain member info, there would be no restriction on publishing it.

Is there a possibility of a church-hosted solution? Would a php solution work, or do you need J2EE?

Thanks
Barrie
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charly3358-p40
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#16

Post by charly3358-p40 »

First Phrase:

("Tecnología de la Estaca" : we tend to use only "Tecnologia de Estaca" as in Presidente de Estaca or Secretario de Estaca etc)

Cambio de título para el sitio web del Especialista de Tecnología de Estaca


El recurso conocido como "Sito web del Especialista de Tecnología de Estaca" ha sido renombrado a "Soporte tecnologico y para secretarios". El sitio continuará proveyendo las mismas ayudas como siempre, pero con beneficios adicionales de contenido añadido y mayor actividad interactiva para ayudar a secretarios y a especialistas de tecnología en sus llamamientos.

(Same as other translation basically)
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charly3358-p40
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#17

Post by charly3358-p40 »

Second phrase:

Nuevo foro de discusión para secretarios y especialistas de tecnología


¿Tiene alguna pregunta en cuanto a su llamamiento como secretario o especialista de tecnología? Véa el nuevo foro en "LDS Tech" diseñado para contestar sus preguntas, informarle de cambios venideros y de tecnología nueva, y ayudarle a magnificar su llamamiento.
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charly3358-p40
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#18

Post by charly3358-p40 »

Third phrase:

Sitio Web de la Unidad Local (SWUL) -- actualizar información de una unidad (they may have chosen another term for this like 'sitio web para unidades locales' or similar)

La unidad necesita cambiar la dirección, número de teléfono, hora de reuniones, o nombre de la unidad en el SWUL.

Dirección de la capilla:
La dirección del edificio que se muestra en el sitio web de la unidad es actualizada por el grupo local de mantimiento preventivo. Si es necesario hacer cambios, las unidades deben contactarse con su grupo local de mantenimiento preventivo.

Número de teléfono de la unidad:
El número de teléfono de la unidad puede ser actualizado por un administrador del sitio Web. Haga click en Opciones de Administradores, después haga click en Mantenimiento Página Inicial y después Teléfono. Actualice el número telefónico.

Horario de reuniones:
El horario de las reuniones en el sitio web se actualiza por medio de SML. El secretario necesita usar SML e ir a Opciones de Sistema, después Unidad, después Horario de las Reuniones para actualizar el horario. Precaución: Cuando se cambia el horario de las reuniones, el campo 'Fecha Cuando Hora Se Actualiza' tiene que ser populado con una fecha futura (aun cuando sea solo un día en el futuro).

Nombre de la unidad:
El nombre de la unidad es actualizado por las oficinas generales de la Iglesia. Una vez que el nombre es actualizado en el Directorio de Organizaciones y Líderes de la Iglesia (CDOL), se actualizará en el sitio web dentro de 14 días.

(Church may have named this DOLI in spanish?)
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charly3358-p40
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#19

Post by charly3358-p40 »

I should have also had various pages on the church's websites open to review the terms others used for things like the Facilities Management offices and even words like Clerk and Technology Specialist. Since I'm not a local leader or even a member of a Spanish or Portuguese-speaking unit, I have no idea what are the terms for these things. Given enough time, I'll bet I could figure it out, but allowing members to contribute to a common glossary would make the process much faster.

Perhaps the administrators here on the LDSTech forum could give us a collaborative, wiki-like tool that would allow easy translations.

But this is exactly why it would be a good idea to have a collaborative effort, because native Spanish speakers will know things like 'Facilidades Físicas' is used for Facilities Management and people who have served in various stake callings know that we say 'El Presidente de Estaca' instead of 'El Presidente de la Estaca' although the later is technically correct. Although a glossary is a good idea and I'd like to see one also, it will probably help people who translate regularly, more than the weekend translator.

I suggest that trying to collaborate with regular and experienced translators, in a team effort, is the way to go forward, instead of employing one or two pro's to do all the work.
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#20

Post by WelchTC »

Kent Larsen wrote: Perhaps the administrators here on the LDSTech forum could give us a collaborative, wiki-like tool that would allow easy translations. I think that would be a great step forward, and allow the army of members who have some knowledge of various languages to help the Church.
I've thought of using a wiki for a lot of our community translation needs. I want to remind everyone that this post was a test, not a solution. We are interested to see the types of responses and quality of translations we get. Assuming that we can get high quality translations from the community, we will invest the time and resources to develop a system to make it easier for us to do translations. I've built these types of systems before in my previous job.

Thanks for everyone's input so far.

Tom
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