[UgaBYTES] Slow translation: CREATIVE development of new TERMINOLOGY

Tue Jul 14 10:56:37 GMT 2009

Dear colleagues,

we have to distinguish two phases in the value chain:

1)  First, Standardisation of the TERMINOLOGY in the target-languagues:
- cannot be done by students or translaters (if they would coin
each different terminology, that you have such a mass as the Russians
had 60 years ago)
- that has to be done a joing governmental-private committee
- each country has set up such  CENTRAL COMMITTEE
(the Russians already 70 years ago, and the Chinese 40 years ago)

2) As soon as terminology work has been finished
TRANSLATION can start
- you may forward the term-banks (databases) to any translator
- translators (or students) can start translatin and will save up to
30 percent of the time since they do NOT have to do terminology work
- due to coherent terminology, nobody will be lost again in translation

Students and translators can do TRANSLATION work
but NOT terminology work. Thats the huge difference.

********************
Currently terminological work is done in Africa mainly
by MULTINATIONALS as Google or Microsoft.
That could be excellent or completely poor.
These companies can destroy or national or minority languages
or make them flourish.

So currently in certain areas as IT you depend on the
terminology work of these multinationals (whose quality I cannot
evaluate from the distance).

However, it is common sense across the globe that
TERMINOLOGICAL WORK is seen as public and joint task
(Government + enterprises + civil society + minority groups)

*****************
The EU and the Council of Europe clearly stated in various declarations
that LANGUAGE+TERMINOLOGY is part of your local CULTURE.

I do not know any country worldwide who leaves up the
responsibility to (US-driven) multinationals. Thats crap.

*****************
So it is UP TO YOU to start a coordinated + joint effort in terms
of terminoloy work.
This can even involve the CITIZEN and I know plenty of public awards
where citizens are asked to COIN NEW CREATIVE terminology
- within their national language
- or within their dialect.

By means of Radio and TV you can easily spread such awards across
your country.

kind regards,

Gerhard

At 10:11 14.07.2009, Mwathi Francis wrote:
>Hi John
>
>I know a number of University students that have participated in
>language translation for both Firefox web browser and Google search
>engine  here in Uganda. One is called Nabireeba James Fredrick and is
>a member on the Telecentre.org website. I am inviting him to this
>mailing list and hopefully he would be able to provide information on
>the situation as it is on the ground.   Am not so sure if an
>evaluation was done to judge the impact but James once you receive
>this discussion we are looking forward to your contribution.
>
>On 7/13/09, John Dada <johndada at fantsuam.org> wrote:
> > Gerhard has made some useful suggestions here. Are there members of
> > this list who are also working with minority languages that may
> > benefit from a terminology database? We are attempting to do this with
> > five languages in rural northern Nigeria. If there are people in
> > UgaBTES with similar interest may be we can work with Gerhard?
> >
> >
> > On 13 Jul 2009, at 10:28, Wagner, Gerhard wrote:
> >
> >> dear Francis,
> >>
> >> may I refer to the work done by my colleagues from the
> >> field of terminology science and terminology management.
> >>
> >> Plenty of minority languages but also most EU countries
> >> and even South Africa set up TERMINOLOGY DATABASES:
> >> - Plenty of software is available, thats not the barrier
> >> - but then the heavy work starts: you have to standardize
> >> the terms in the target languages
> >> - plenty of approaches are applicable for that
> >> - finally you end up with an OFFICIAL terminology database
> >> - such a database you can forward via email to any external translator
> >>
> >> By means of such term-datbaeses the speed of translations can be
> >> increased by up to 30 percent and costs cut down
> >> and the QUALITY AND CONSISTENCY of terminology can be improved.
> >>
> >> Terminology science was developed in the 50ies in Austria by an
> >> industrialist and separated from language science.
> >> A DICTIONARY is not comparable with a TERM DATABASE.
> >>
> >> Regional terminology institutes across the EU, their term-databases
> >> and a clever
> >> policy of implementation saved many minority languages in Europe to
> >> service.
> >>
> >> ********************
> >> Suggestion:
> >>
> >> Identify a suitable EU-African transfer programme or address bilateral
> >> funding from an EU-country, and I will bring you in touch with the
> >> scientific community and service providers.
> >>
> >> Furthermore:
> >> as soon as you have trained your staff, you may create
> >> LOCAL JOBS in your country, even in the periphery.
> >>
> >> kind regards,
> >>
> >>
> >> Gerhard
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> At 10:00 13.07.2009, Mwathi Francis wrote:
> >>> Lack of agreed language terms, the slow pace of translation and lack
> >>> of technical expertise have greatly stunted the development of
> >>> software in local African languages.
> >>>
> >>> Many African languages are not documented and most technology terms
> >>> such as mouse, phishing and malware, among others, do not exist in
> >>> African languages, which has hampered the development process.
> >>>
> >>> "There is insufficient investment in product translation by major
> >>> global brands; the pace is too slow and even when done, it takes a
> >>> long time to have the final products for use. Meanwhile, languages
> >>> are
> >>> developing and changing, meaning that the product may look "old" when
> >>> developed because of the slow nature of implementation," said Hezron
> >>> Mogambi, a linguistics lecturer and Swahili translator at the
> >>> University of Nairobi.
> >>>
> >>> Microsoft, Google and Facebook are some of the global brands that
> >>> have
> >>> translated their products into local languages for use by communities
> >>> that may not be conversant with English or prefer to use their local
> >>> languages.
> >>>
> >>> Google has launched Amharic, Oromo, Tigrinya (Ethiopia), Somali
> >>> (Somalia), Kinyarwanda (Rwanda), Kirundi (Burundi), Lingala
> >>> (Democratic Republic of Congo), Hausa, Yeruba (Nigeria), Zulu, Xhosa,
> >>> SeSotho, Africaans (South Africa), Shona (Zimbabwe), Malagasy
> >>> (Madagascar), and Akan (Ghana and Ivory Coast), said Julie Taylor,
> >>> communications and public affairs officer at Google UK.
> >>>
> >>> In its quest to reach more people, Microsoft is developing products
> >>> in
> >>> more than 60 African languages under the Local Language Program.
> >>>
> >>> Microsoft has probably faced the biggest challenge in its translation
> >>> projects -- its products are available in eight African languages,
> >>> but
> >>> the products are never translated in a timely way for use by the
> >>> community. For instance, Windows Vista translation into Swahili is
> >>> yet
> >>> to be unveiled for the 100 million Swahili speakers in East and
> >>> Central Africa. The company is in the process of testing Windows 7.
> >>>
> >>> "Lack of local localization experience has affected Microsoft. Even
> >>> if
> >>> partners have translation experience, they are not always familiar
> >>> with the languages, localization practices and tools. It takes time
> >>> for Microsoft to train and manage these skills," said Mark Matunga,
> >>> citizenship manager, Microsoft Eastern and Southern Africa.
> >>>
> >>> Lack of agreed language tables may be a perfect excuse for lack of
> >>> swift translation, but there is also the tug-of-war over which
> >>> community has the authority to translate what language, and that
> >>> affects the product's acceptability in the market.
> >>>
> >>> Tanzania has always held the higher ground in Swahili translation
> >>> projects as Tanzanians speak the more authentic and pure Swahili
> >>> compared to Kenya. So, if a product is translated in Kenya,
> >>> Tanzanians
> >>> may not accept it, citing the difference in terminologies. There is
> >>> also the question of whether it is translated at a university or by a
> >>> commercial vendor.
> >>>
> >>> A commercial translation company tends to have more experience, with
> >>> less need for training or troubleshooting. Such companies also are
> >>> familiar with the rigors of commercial development and tend to stay
> >>> on
> >>> schedule and work within Microsoft expectations more easily, said
> >>> Matunga.
> >>>
> >>> "But working with local community groups offers Microsoft the
> >>> opportunity to build deeper relationships, promote local businesses,
> >>> build greater opportunity to ensure local relevance, which takes more
> >>> time because we may need to communicate and coordinate among more
> >>> stakeholders," added Matunga.
> >>>
> >>> Google has managed to escape the headache of slow translation
> >>> projects
> >>> by using machine translation for searches and Suggest, which is
> >>> integrated within other Google global projects. Google recently
> >>> launched Ethiopic transliteration in Suggest.
> >>>
> >>> "Most state-of-the-art, commercial machine-translation systems in use
> >>> today have been developed using a rules-based approach and require a
> >>> lot of work by linguists to define vocabularies and grammars," said
> >>> Google UK's Taylor.
> >>>
> >>> However, automatic translation is considered very difficult because
> >>> the meaning of words depends on the context in which they are used,
> >>> as
> >>> well as the structure and rules of a language. For instance, some
> >>> words are similar but different in meaning.
> >>>
> >>> "While machine translation is not yet perfect, we believe that the
> >>> current quality of machine translation is sufficient for many users
> >>> to
> >>> obtain a gist understanding of content in other languages -- and over
> >>> time, our automatic translations will get better," added Taylor.
> >>>
> >>> While more and more Africans are expected to get online, the literacy
> >>> levels are still slow and access to local content in local languages
> >>> will be vital. Most of the content online, whether via PCs or
> >>> mobiles,
> >>> is still in English and French, which are the dominant Western
> >>> languages in Africa.
> >>>
> >>> Compared to other regions, the translation projects are taking a
> >>> similar slow pace, but the lack of documentation and local leadership
> >>> in volunteer translation has affected the pace. The glossary of words
> >>> is the toughest as meanings of words differ between language
> >>> dialects,
> >>> but once a glossary is done, more people will access online
> >>> resources.
> >>>
> >>> "Use of local languages over the Internet will definitely help in the
> >>> translation process because once standard equivalent terminology has
> >>> been established, then the Internet would serve as a channel to the
> >>> efforts of African states to use modern media and technology for
> >>> development and civic participation," said Mogambi, who also lectures
> >>> in Swahili at the university.
> >>>
> >>> Machine translation may become an easier tool, but the linguists and
> >>> cultural experts need to develop acceptable terminologies for
> >>> communities to take up.
> >>>
> >>> Source: www.computerworld.co.ke
> >>>
> >>> --
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> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Francis Mwathi
> >>> Support Community Facilitator
> >>> UgaBYTES Initiatives (www.ugabytes.org)
> >>> Telecentr.org (www.telecentrecommunity.ning.com)
> >>> Tel: +256 414 370163
> >>> Mob: +256 783 010269
> >>> Skype: francis.mwathi
> >>> E-Mail: mfrancis at ugabytes.org
> >>>
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>Enter our blog contest for your chance to win recognition and prizes
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>For more info, please check www.telecentre.org
>
>
>Francis Mwathi
>Support Community Facilitator
>UgaBYTES Initiatives (www.ugabytes.org)
>Telecentr.org (www.telecentrecommunity.ning.com)
>Tel: +256 414 370163
>Mob: +256 783 010269
>Skype: francis.mwathi
>E-Mail: mfrancis at ugabytes.org
>
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