Re: [libreoffice-l10n] Language Abkhazian

Hi,
Let me chime in here as well. First of all, Pootle has the ability to use a configured TM. Couple 
options available out of the box are Google Translate (which is an MT, not a TM service) and 
Aperture (which, if I remember correctly, holds a collection of translated strings from a large 
amount of open source software, and can suggest these translations to you). In addition to this, 
there's apparently a lookup feature as well, with an example config for Wikipedia. I'm not sure why 
we aren't using any of these at the moment, but I guess we could turn them on, if needed.

However, none of these features are even close to being a replacement for a real human localizer 
being at the moment. They are mere helpers, and nothing more. Surely, the level of accuracy varies 
by language, but considering other replies, I guess even translations into English are bad enough. 
As a user, I sometimes stumble upon software, which is "localized" into Lithuanian using Google 
Translate (or something very similar). Tell you what: on these cases I feel insulted by the idiocy 
of that app's "localizer", because that person obviously didn't know at all what they were doing 
and how shitty the outcome of their "effort" is. I can't tell for sure that that outcome isn't 
helpful, but I really doubt that it is. So, to summarize my point, we should never attempt to seed 
any locale with machine translations. These are a good helper mechanism, but a bad base to start 
building up on.

By the way, writing this also reminded me of Google's Code-In programme and what we should learn 
from it. GCI is similar to Google Summer Of Code, but targets younger students to whom the 
participating projects assign smaller than GSOC tasks. Among them, localization tasks were also 
acceptable. So, some students quickly found a way to easily cash out the rewards offered for 
completing these tasks, by using MT services. What's worth learning from this is that there should 
always be a mentor within a project who understands the target language well enough to at least 
tell whether it looks like a result of MT. Otherwise it's just a waste of rewards and its 
reputation.

Regards, 
Rimas

On 2014 m. lapkritis 3 d. 00:03:21 EET, Tom Davies <tomcecf@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi :)
>
> Going off-topic (now that the original question has been solved),
> hopefully
> just briefly ...
>
> Of course Firefox (and many others) allows add-ons such as
> machine-translators.  They are getting much better but are still
> hilariously bad quite often.  Often they give just enough of a hint
> that i
> think i understand what someone is saying although i always wonder if
> they
> have sent me off in a wrong direction.
>
> My MT (i think "Quick translate"), gave me;
> "Hello!
> I ask you to add the Abkhaz language for translation
> Libre Office ver. 4.3.3.2
> "
> Which made a lot of sense and it's good to have a respectable human
> confirm
> that because it gives me a little more confidence in the MT.
>
>
> I've often wondered if they might be "good enough" to get rough
> translations done well enough for humans to proof-read and polish? 
> Perhaps
> just "good enough" to use alongside the human translators own skill and
> knowledge, perhaps to get some inspiration?  Perhaps better for people
> who
> are only just starting to translate things?
>
> I've also wondered if it's easier to have paired teams.  So in this
> case
> someone who is a native Russian-speaker but understands Abkhazian "well
> enough" to do first drafts and then a native Abkhazian-speaker to do
> proof-reading, ideally one who understands Russian (or English or
> something) just well enough to be able to look back at a source
> document to
> double-check that things haven't gone too far off-track.
>
> Does either of those ideas have any validity?  Are they something that
> noobs or laymen often seem to think but turns out to be more work
> and/or
> less accurate than whatever different ways your teams use?
>
> Err, i am a typical English person and only understand 1 language at
> all
> and not even that great at that 1 so please forgive my noobishness in
> this
> post.
> Regards from
> Tom :)
>
>
>
>
> On 2 November 2014 19:17, Sophie Gautier <gautier.sophie@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Hi
> >
> > Le 2 nov. 2014 20:10, "Andras Timar" <timar74@gmail.com> a écrit :
> > > On Sun, Nov 2, 2014 at 7:52 PM, Sophie <gautier.sophie@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > > > Hi and welcome,
> > > > Le 02/11/2014 17:30, Андрей Абухба a écrit :
> > > > >  Здравствуйте!
> > > > >
> > > > > Прошу Вас добавить абхазский язык для перевода
> > > > > Libre Office ver. 4.3.3.2
> > > >
> > > > Could you write in English? it will be much more easier for us to
> help
> > > > you :)
> > > > Thanks
> > > > Sophie
> > >
> > > I think Andrey wanted us to add Abkhazian language to Pootle. I've
> > > just done that.(Probably he cannot write in English, and will
> > > translate LibreOffice from Russian to Abkhazian, but I don't know
> for
> > > sure.) Anyway, welcome Andrey, and you can start translating
> > > LibreOffice 4.3 UI in Pootle.
> >
> > Ha great! Thanks Andras. Andrey let us know which language is
> preferred for
> > you so we know who to ping to help you if you need it.
> > Cheers
> > Sophie
> >
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--
Rimas

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