Become an Expert

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If you are fluent in at least 2 languages, you may apply to become an Expert! Just send us proof that you are bilingual, such as a paragraph written in two languages. The other option is to become an active member at WikiTranslation, and we will assign you the title. What benefits are there to being an expert? Well, let’s look at all the user types and permissions.

Anonymous

  • Can request a translation
  • Can translate
  • Can comment

Registered User

  • Can also vote on translations and comments
  • Can earn points and titles
  • IP address remains hidden

Expert

  • Can edit any source text, comment, or translation request
  • Can hide any post

Basically, as an expert, you can be more involved and help improve the quality of all translations.

New Features!

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Over the past week we have implemented several new features at WikiTranslation:

You can now follow WikiTranslation here on Twitter!
Follow wikitranslation on Twitter

If you don’t have a Twitter account, or you’re a Stumbleupon addict like myself, like us and add us to your favorites here at our Stumbleupon page!

Unlike most site twitter accounts, Wikitranslation will pay attention to its users and will make an earnest effort to respond promptly to followers’ site suggestions and comments.

This being said, if you have any site questions, site suggestions, opinions on the site, or anything formal and informal, feel free to shoot us a message at @wikitranslation.

We also have a Facebook page here if you prefer to stay updated that way.

And last but not least, there is now a forum where you can discuss questions with other like minded users. Several users requested this feature and we agree that it is a good idea. Right now you have to create a new account for the forum, but we are working on integrating the forum and the main site. If you have any suggestions or new features you would like to be implemented, feel free to contact us!

-Brandon

 

 

Funny Translation Errors

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Translating English to another language can create some pretty comical mistakes.  From brand name product translations to basic instructions, hotel information to restaurant slogans, these errors will have you laughing and shaking your head.

Signs and Images

Marketing, signs, and basic instructions can prove to be quite difficult and completely hilarious when translation errors are made.  Take a look at these pics for some examples:

Probably not what the folks at I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter were intending.

 

hand grenade

Put out a small fire or demolish the entire building?  You decide!

 

Um, well… this one just speaks for itself.

 

let us do the birds friend

Whatever makes you happy, friend!

 

crap your hands

Here we have a bit of Engrish gone awry.

 

press for green man

Most of us press the button to cross the street.  But imagine how cool it would be if what this sign says really happened!

 

titti dispenser

If only it were that easy.

do not feed fishes with private

Here fishy, fishy….

Food and Restaurant Goofs

With most translation errors, problems seem to arise when words are translated too literally.  Instead of looking at the meaning and context behind the words or sayings, and finding the appropriate foreign language phrase, the words are translated literally and mistakes arise.  Check out these food and beverage goofs:

  • I’m not sure how appealing it is to “eat your fingers off”.  However, when the first Kentucky Fried Chicken opened in China, that’s exactly how the famous slogan “finger-lickin’ good” was translated.
  • When Schweppes, the makers of club sodas and tonic waters was introduced in Italy, the name “Schweppes Tonic Water” was translated into “Schweppes Toilet Water”.  Some websites report this one to just be an urban myth or spoof, who really knows for sure, but it’s funny just the same! Yikes!
  • In China, one of Pepsi’s slogans “Pepsi Brings you Back to Life”  got translated just a little to literally. Perhaps they were going for bottled fountain of youth when the slogan was translated to say “Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave”.
  • Coke didn’t do much better then Pepsi in China.  They chose Chinese characters that, when spoken, sounded like Coca-Cola.  However, when translated meant “bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse stuffed with wax” depending on the particular dialect.

 

Hotels and Inns

Hotels and Inns seem to have their own particular problem with things getting lost in translation.  Perhaps it’s the different words to describe hotel employee jobs, or again, the quite literal translations that just don’t work.  Here are just a few hotel mistakes:

 

  • One Athens hotel encourages visitors to complain at the desk between the hours of 9-11am daily.
  • A Japanese hotel invites guests to take advantage of the chambermaid.  Of course we can assume that that means to use the maid service, as in asking for fresh towels, but the subtle “off” wording leaves one wondering what chambermaids are really for!
  • Another error involving the chambermaid comes from a Sarajevo hotel, letting guests know that “the flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid”. Wait, they iron underwear?
  • On a sign in a hotel room in Tokyo it reads, “it is forbidden to steal hotel towels please. If you are not a person to do such a thing is please not read this notice.”

 

The best one of all, just sums it up beautifully…

translate server error

Translation/Language Resources

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Here are a few links and resources that I find very useful, feel free to suggest other sites in the comments.

Machine Translators

MyMemory- A free and searchable translation memory.

Google Translate- One of the best online machine translators.

Bing Translator- Another decent machine translator.

Tools

Google Translator Toolkit- An online editor that is designed to help translators work more efficiently.

WorldWide Lexicon- Software that lets you easily translate a blog or website using machine translation, crowdsourced translation, or professional translation.

Chinese Names- Get your name in Chinese!

Blogs

Naked Translations- An informative and humorous blog about a life as a French to English translator.

Translation Journal- A large collection of articles dating back to 1997!

Thoughts on Translation- A insightful blog about translation.

There’s Something About Translation- A blog about life as a freelance translator, and also tips and guides for the aspiring translator.

Community

Polyglot Club- A place where you can find a foreign pen pal.

How to Learn Any Language Forum- A forum where you can discuss how to learn languages.

English Forums- Learn English by chatting with different people through the forums or chat rooms.

Help Translate This Blog!

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You can now help translate this blog! If you look to the right — ——–>, you can see a menu that says Languages.

If you click on another language, the blog will load with a machine translation (it might take a few extra seconds to load). Now here’s the cool thing: if you notice an inaccuracy or mistranslation, you can click the Edit button and correct it! The correction will be saved and other readers can vote on the quality of the translation.

Thanks to Worldwide Lexicon for developing this great open-source tool.

The Do It Yourself Guide to Translation

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you

Sometimes you have to translate it yourself!

Even though there are numerous professional translators, sometimes you can’t afford one. And even though there are volunteer translators, sometimes nobody is willing to help. Then you have to resort to trying to translate your document yourself. This guide will show you how to get the best results. We will assume that you are a native English speaker, and you are trying to translate the following paragraph into French (even though you have little experience.)

On the night of the day on which this cruel deed was done, I was aroused from sleep by the cry of fire. The curtains of my bed were in flames. The whole house was blazing. It was with great difficulty that my wife, a servant, and myself, made our escape from the conflagration.The destruction was complete. My entire worldly wealth was swallowed up, and I resigned myself thenceforward to despair.

Step 1: Check to see if it has already been translated.

Hey you never know, maybe someone else already took the time to translate it. A quick Google search reveals it has been:

Dans la nuit qui suivit le jour où fut commise cette action cruelle, je fus tiré de mon sommeil par le cri: Au feu! Les rideaux de mon lit étaient en flammes. Toute la maison flambait. Ce ne fut pas sans une grande difficulté que nous échappâmes à l’incendie,—ma femme, un domestique, et moi. La destruction fut complète. Toute ma fortune fut engloutie, et je m’abandonnai dès lors au désespoir.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20790/20790-h/20790-h.htm#LE_CHAT_NOIR

But let’s pretend you couldn’t find it on Google. You can search a translation database at mymemory.translated.net. Nothing useful was found. Alright, time to resort to machine translation…

Step 2: Prepare the document for machine translation.

  • Check to see that the original document has no spelling or grammatical errors. Tests have shown that using “i” instead of “I” can affect results!
  • Replace all slang and non-literal terms with common words.
  • Split up long sentences into several short sentences.

On the night this cruel deed was done, I was awakened by the sound of fire. The curtains of my bed were in flames. The whole house was blazing. It was with great difficulty that my wife, a servant, and I escaped from the fire. The destruction was complete. My entire wealth was destroyed, and I became depressed.

Step 3: Plug it into a translator.

I used Google Translate. Unfortunately, there is no way you can check the accuracy without knowing the language yourself. But you can rest assured that the quality will be better than directly translating the original document.

Dans la nuit cet acte cruel a été fait, j’ai été réveillé par le bruit du feu. Les rideaux de mon lit étaient en flammes. Toute la maison était en feu. C’est avec grande difficulté que ma femme, un serviteur, et je me suis échappé de l’incendie. La destruction a été complète. Ma richesse entier a été détruit, et je suis devenue dépressive.

How to Get a Good Wiki Translation

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Are you new to the concept of wiki translation? I have written this mini guide to show how to maximize your chances of getting a good translation. The most important thing to understand is that users on WikiTranslation are volunteers. While professionals have an obligation to perform a service, volunteers have no such obligation. Therefore, you should make it as easy as possible for wiki translators.  Use the following guidelines to help you:

1) Place your request in the right category. If you want a translation from German to Spanish, select the category Deutsch-Español. If nobody can figure out what the target language is, your text will remain untranslated.

2) Have an accurate and descriptive title. Using “Translate” as your title doesn’t make it stand out. “HELP!!! PLEASE TRANSLATE!!!!” isn’t good either.

3) Try to keep your text short. Try to keep it under 500 characters. Not many people are willing to work on your request for hours. If you have a long text, break it up into several sections and request each one separately.

4) Provide as much information as possible. If necessary, explain the context in which the source text is in. This helps clear up confusion.

5) Make the source text as good as possible. Proofread your source text before you submit it. Try to use accents and characters required by the original language.

For a good example, see http://wikitranslation.org/?qa=13/einstein-on-relativity

Einstein on Relativity

Which machine translator is the best? Part II

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Google Translate vs. Bing Translator

Google, Bing

Bing Translator vs. Google Translate

In last week’s post, I concluded that Yahoo Babelfish was clearly inferior to Google Translate and Bing Translator. This week is the tiebreaker! I’ve subjected the two remaining online translators to different tests, ranging from easy to hard.

Test 1: German Proverb

Source: Besser ein Spatz in der Hand, als eine Taube auf dem Dach.

Translation: A sparrow in the hand is better than a pigeon on the roof.

Google Translate: Better a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Interestingly, Google Translate did not go for the literal translation, but instead went for the English equivalent, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”

Bing Translate: Better a Spatz in der hand as a dove on the roof.

I think Google Translate wins this one.

Test 2: Victor Hugo, Villemain (1845)

Source: Vous avez des ennemis? Mais c’est l’histoire de tout homme qui a fait une action grande ou crée une idée neuve. C’est la nuée qui bruit autour de tout ce qui brille. Il faut que la renommé ait des ennemis comme il faut que la lumière ait des moucherons. Ne vous en inquiétez pas, dédaignez! Ayez la sérénité dans votre esprit comme vous avez la limpidité dans votre vie.

Translation: You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It is the cloud which thunders around everything that shines. Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats. Do no bother yourself about it; disdain. Keep your mind serene as you keep your life clear.

Google Translate: You have enemies? But is the story of every man who has made a great action or creates a new idea. It’s the noise around cloud all that glitters. It must have renamed the enemies as you ought to have the light of gnats. Do not worry, scorn! Be calm in your mind as you clarity in your life.

Bing Translate: You have enemies? But it is the story of a man who has done a great action or creates a new idea. This is the cloud that noise around everything that glitters. Must be that the renamed have enemies as it must be that light midges.Do you to worry not, dédaignez! Have the serenity in your mind as you have clarity in your life.

Google Translate is better. Bing has a bad habit of not translating a few words.

Test 3: Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Source:

????????????????????????????

?????????????????????????????????????

Translation:

  1. Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State.
  2. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.
  3. The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one’s deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.
  4. These are:
    1. The Moral Law;
    2. Heaven;
    3. Earth;
    4. The Commander;
    5. Method and discipline.

Google Translate: Sun Tzu said: soldiers who affairs of state of life and death, the survival of the Road,must be aware also.
It follows that the order to five things, to take account of the school, and claim their feelings: one said channel, second is days, the third is, the Si Yue will, Wu Yue law.

Bing Translate: Sun Zi said: soldiers of the nation events, land of the dead, survival of the road, must be noted. Five things to take account of the school, emotionally cable by: Yue road, said the second day, the three ends, the four ends, five said method.

Both translations are equally bad. I heard somewhere that machine translations are best for these languages: English, Spanish, German, and French. This probably results from the similarity in these languages and the large amount of source texts available.

Conclusion

Google Translate leads in the field of machine translation! Bing Translator sometimes refuses to translate certain words, which is quite annoying (see test 1). As usual, short sentences work better. One last note: The Art of War is not modern Chinese, just as Shakespeare isn’t modern English. If I had replaced it with more modern text, the results might have been better.

Which machine translator is the best?

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United Nations Flag
Google Translate vs. Yahoo Babelfish vs. Bing Translator

Machine translation has been around since 1954—the Georgetown-IBM experiment. They automatically translated 60 sentences from Russian to English. The first machine translator had 250 words in its vocabulary and 6 grammar rules. The experiment was declared a huge success, and the authors claimed that machine translation would be solved in 5 years. Here we are more than 50 years later. Machine translators have millions of words in their vocabulary and thousands of grammar rules, and can translate anything from Afrikaans to Yiddish. Despite this, machine translators are still rarely accurate with their translations. If the best machine translator is mediocre, you can’t afford to use lesser ones! I’ve tested three machine translators: Google Translate, Yahoo Babelfish, and Bing Translator.

I’ve used the Mandarin Chinese version of Article 21 of the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” as the source text. Here is the source text:

  1. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??
  2. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??
  3. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?; ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?, ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?, ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??

And here is the English translation:

1.      Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

2.      Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.

3.      The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Google Translate (translate.google.com)

Google Translate uses statistical machine translation. Google Translate has analyzed millions of bilingual text in order to “learn” the language. It looks for patterns in the language, which helps it decide on the best translation for you through an intelligent guessing system.

Google Translation:

1. Everyone has, directly or through freely chosen representatives in government of his country’s rights.
2. Everyone has equal opportunity to participate in their public rights.
3. the people’s will is the basis of the authority of government; this will be in periodic and genuine elections be expressed in the election shall be by universal and equal suffrage and by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Yahoo Babelfish (babelfish.yahoo.com)

Yahoo Babelfish is powered by SYSTRAN technology. It uses hybrid machine translation, which is a combination of rule-based and statistical translation methods.

Babelfish Translation:

1.       Everybody has direct or participation through free choice representative governs our country the right.

2.       Everybody has the equal opportunity to participate in our country official business the right.

3.       People’s will is the government authority foundation; This will should displays by regular and the true election, but elects should rest on the universal peace and so on voting right, and carries on by the secret ballot or the suitable free vote procedure.

Bing Translator (microsofttranslator.com)

Microsoft has its own statistical machine translation technology. Bing Translator is the newest out the three machine translators being tested.

Bing Translation:

1.       every person has, directly or through freely chosen representatives involved in the governance of their own rights.

2.       everyone shall have the right to equal opportunity to participate in national public service.

3.       the will of the people is the basis of the authority of the Government; This will be in periodic and genuine elections, the election shall be by universal and equal voting rights, and by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Conclusion

Yahoo Babelfish is clearly the worst one. Sentences in Chinese are structured differently than sentences in English, but Babelfish did not recognize that. Bing Translator and Google Translate had some grammatical mistakes and confusing phrases, but at least you can tell what the main idea is. If you use short sentences, then the result will be better. Perhaps in Part 2 I will perform more tests with Google Translate and Bing Translator.

Edit:Part 2 has been released!

Machine Translation, Wiki Translation, or Professional Translation?

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A translation is no translation, he said, unless it will give you the music of a poem along with the words of it.
-John Millington Synge

People will always have the need to translate documents, whether it is an IM or a novel. Sometimes, you need a quick translation to reply to your friend’s message. Other times, you want to reach a global audience by translating your novel. We will discuss 3 different ways of getting a translation: machine translation, wiki translation, and professional translation. When should one use each method?

Machine Translation

Machine translation is an automatic translation process using computers. Machine translators usually use a statistical approach. For example, Google Translate uses billions of bilingual documents to “learn” a language. Despite this, machine translations are still inaccurate. Use if:

  • You don’t have the resources for a professional translation. Machine translation can be found online for free.
  • You need the translation in 5 minutes or less.
  • You only want to translate one word.
  • Your translation request is very common. If your translation request is very common, it is likely to be in the memory of the machine translator already. Phrases such as Hello, Good morning, I love you, and My name is Joe can be translated with very good accuracy.

Don’t use if:

  • The translation needs to be accurate. Don’t use a machine translation for a website or book. Foreign visitors will be daunted by the syntax errors and incomprehensible writing.
  • You want the writing to sound natural. Machine translators are terrible at translating songs and poems for this reason.

WikiTranslation

Wiki translation is what WikiTranslation.org provides. You crowd source your translation; you release the document to the community and volunteer users will translate it. Use if:

  • You don’t have the resources for a professional translation. This service is free!
  • A dictionary or a machine translator will not provide good results.
  • Your document is only a few paragraphs. Long passages are not likely to be translated.

Don’t use if:

  • You can’t wait a few days for the translation.
  • You don’t want the public to see your document.

Professional Translation

Professional translation is paying someone who is highly fluent in both the source and target language to translate the document.

Use if:

  • You need the translation to be 100% accurate and reliable.
  • You are willing to pay at least $.07 per word.
  • You need a long document translated. Only professionals are willing to do this with high accuracy.

Don’t use if:

  • You don’t have the resources for a professional translation.
  • You need an instant translation.
  • The accuracy is not very important and you are happy with getting the main idea.