Open Letter: Why I give high scores to my translatorssteemCreated with Sketch.

in #davinci6 years ago (edited)

I've heard that some people were complaining that our scores are too high.

Ok... This is an Open Letter and you will see why I think those scores are fine:

For Example, Steemit Bluepaper

Serbian and Croatian languages are similar, but not The Same. @zen-art can tell you more about the differences as she is from Croatia.

I was translating Steemit Bluepaper, and this is what I've found. In the official document

Something was not clear in the document, so I've added a constructive comment

I also suggested writing the whole paragraph to make it clear

Now... Absolutely wrong translation: "to scale" vs "a kitchen scale"

18 Hard Forks... Not really

Again, bad Croatian, "to scale up" vs "to measure something"

Now I'm angry:

Tell me, if I fix one more language, for FREE... Is that "Excellent"?

Or... If I cross-check 4-5 languages, is that only "average"?

Minecollonies:

Can this compensate any commas, typos...? Or it's completely worthless?

Roadiz:

FRA = ESP and ENG = ITA - great situation!

Only I've noticed that. I guess - just an average...

Let's check @hidden84

Look how lovely this project is, he needs to invent basically half of the text

Sorry, not enough screen to make a proper screenshot... Part II

This maniac gave me 3 options, 99% the same... Ma-ni-ac

I guess this is also, just an average. He is a professional novel writer, but what do I know... Average

And my last, but not the least translator @scienceangel

In all other languages, this is a common abbreviation? Ok...

If it's understandable to you - it's understandable to me as well.
But I prefer to see the meaning.

I guess, 5 min search on Google for every single abbreviation is - just an average thing

Policing around

About 80% of "errors" are 100% - subjective. If I think that something could be written differently, I can suggest it to my translator. Sometimes we agree to accept it, sometimes we keep it as it was.

Is that an error - I don't think so...

I write a lot. I write scientific publication. It goes like this:

  • I write it
  • my colleagues fix it
  • I rewrite it and submit
  • Reviewer check, send it back
  • I fix some parts, again
  • my colleagues fix something, again
  • and I fix something, again-again

If you have any experience with serious, technical writing, you know that this is normal.
Did the native text contain 150 errors? No...
Was the last version perfect? No...

GDevelop example:

  • version 1, translated and verified
  • I've seen the text on GDevelop website
  • Revision was given with 1000 new words - I fixed some of the old strings, for "free" of course
  • Today I was translating it again, new minor revision, and I made new changes, for "free"

How many errors were there? 0? -42? +742? I don't know...
If someone voluntarily decides to invest more time and fix something that was already good - how should I count that? As a "negative error"? Don't tell me that you have never encountered this? My translators are doing that... We are here to make the best possible product.

That's only a small part that I can give as an example

My translators are - excellent: a professional novel writer and a PhD who is writing papers and grants
Every one of us re-check what was already good and makes it better
We collaborate and speak about the options - to find better solutions

We are not playing "teacher and students" and I don't want to deliberately punish them, I don't need to feel like a genius or a God by presenting The Authority.

We are here to deliver products, excellent translations, to final users.

Instead of policing around, please, check our final product instead.
Call any Serb, (Croat, Montenegrin, Bosnian) - to check any of our translations.
If those are just average - ok, my mistake.

Why Our translations are great, Let's ask Intel

If this is good for Intel - I don't know what is the definition of bad, average, good and excellent

Do your best, we will certainly do our best

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Yeah.... Croatian and Serbian are similar but not the same, two different languages. When it comes to some of those examples that you have given, they are terrible and a better translation is needed. Speaking of better translations, not to blow my own horn here but you know, I am Croatian :D Who do I have to sprinkle with my fairy dust to get to work on Croatian translations?

The God of the Steem Price I guess :D

I would be really happy to see DaVinci Team Croatia, as we could cross-check our translations.

"pladanj izlaza", by Intel - The Winner

Ako idem u Dalmaciju, naručiću jedan pladanj toga, pa šta mi Bog da... :D
Tipa sendvič i sok za poneti i račun - moglo bi to da bude

Samo da ti ne da po glavi tim pladnjem, i biće ok XD

Testiraću prvo na kolegama iz Istre i Dalmacije :D

Automatic translations and translations given by people who do not understand the original or target language are worth a poop in technical text. It best to leave a message in English, so people can understand it with some effort than produce nonsense that no one understands.

Thanks for commenting. I agree with you.

We should always think about the final users.

In some cases, Verdaccio for example, we have a specialized tool for specialists. For them, the best solution is to leave the majority of the text - in English.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have SteemBluepaper, the document that should be understandable even for my grandma. In that case, we want to "sell" the idea of Steem, and we need to make it perfectly clear for everybody to understand. Everything was explained in details, but some of the original expressions were kept in (brackets).

The third case is some WebShop for example, where we encounter something technical. Our solution for such problem is to explain for those who are not willing to Google it but we also preserve the original abbreviation for those who want to know the exact meaning.

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