Comments on: Facebook Translation

By: Literati

Literati — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:58:59 +0000

Exactly the words I was searching for. And that's also why I've always wanted to start blogging. I've just got to find some compelling subjects. :]

By: Deas

Deas — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 03:59:25 +0000

More like reiterating a fact than voicing an opinion, but thanks for the
comment anyway! The cool thing about being on a blog and wondering about
something is that folks who know often come set you straight. Thanks,
internet. Ha ha.

By: Literati

Literati — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 03:45:02 +0000

Actually, foreign languages on Facebook are translated mainly by the users themselves. There's an application you can download for your account called "Translator" or something, and it basically has a huge list of which phrases/parts of the UI have been translated, and which haven't. And you can submit a translation you think is good, or vote on translations others have submitted. Highest voted submissions become the official Facebook translation for that particular phrase. After all that, I think some staff skims it all over to make sure it's up to par.

EDIT: Oooh, man, someone beat me to this. I swear I didn't copy Durf. I wrote this whole thing before logging in, and saw his post after doing so. I'm only clicking "Post" because I want to voice my opinion. D: Sorry.

By: Literati

Literati — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:58:59 +0000

Exactly the words I was searching for. And that's also why I've always wanted to start blogging. I've just got to find some compelling subjects. :]

By: Deas

Deas — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:59:25 +0000

By: Literati

Literati — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:45:02 +0000

Actually, foreign languages on Facebook are translated mainly by the users themselves. There's an application you can download for your account called "Translator" or something, and it basically has a huge list of which phrases/parts of the UI have been translated, and which haven't. And you can submit a translation you think is good, or vote on translations others have submitted. Highest voted submissions become the official Facebook translation for that particular phrase. After all that, I think some staff skims it all over to make sure it's up to par.

EDIT: Oooh, man, someone beat me to this. I swear I didn't copy Durf. I'm only clicking "Post" because I want to voice my opinion. D: Sorry.

By: Kashgari @ China Travel

Kashgari @ China Travel — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:30:28 +0000

Hey!
Nice post, I will tell it my friend who knows Japanese,she also uses the face book media platform, thanks for warning us.

By: Hao

Hao — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 08:49:41 +0000

Call me a traitor, but I hate most Spanish translations of software/websites I use, Windows being the worst. “Save” becomes “Guardar” and that becomes CTRL+G!! CTRL+S is used for “subrayado” (underlined), can you believe that?!? Of course, nothing beats the Traditional Chinese Windows XP I have installed on my other computer. I swear Confucious was involved in translating the control panel O_O

By: Durf

Durf — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:12:51 +0000

> Where do you draw the line between a 'translation' and
> an 'explanation'? The example of 'ilunga' on your linked
> post, for example - Is it considered a true "translation"?
> I felt it was an explanation of the term itself. Maybe even
> a definition. I see translation as being live-language
> rendered into another.

Well, your last sentence here hits the nail on the head: a translation is a representation of a functional piece of language in another language. The term "ilunga" isn't likely to be thrown out all on its own, so when translating it we need to consider the context in which it appears, and then craft a sentence/sentences in the target language to re-create all that context. Of course it's going to look like a dictionary definition when all you have to go on is the single word floating around in a vacuum like that.

I agree that there are "not perfectly translatable" parts of language. The job of the translator is to choose a point somewhere on the scale between clanging faithfulness to the original's forms ("I hereby partake of this food!") and free-form recasting in the target tongue ("Oh man, I'm starved. Let's dig in!"). The choice you make depends on things like the preferences of your client and the needs of your readership.

Incidentally, it's this sort of decision-making that will prevent computers from replacing translators for a long, long time to come.

By: Per-Gunnar

Per-Gunnar — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:20:34 +0000

This is interesting! I was in the swedish translation program for a while just watching and commenting when something was wrong or shoud be replaced by something