OpenBSD Journal

Joining the OpenBSD Translation Team

Contributed by deanna on from the merci beaucoup dept.

We've received some undeadly article translations in the past few days, which are appreciated. Some may not be aware of the fact that the OpenBSD translation team exists, and could use your help. The Translation Effort page on the OpenBSD website contains plenty of information on how to get started. Translating documentation is a great way to contribute to and learn more about OpenBSD and related projects.

(Comments are closed)


Comments
  1. By don't bother (159.148.95.9) on

    Translation projects are useless. Manpower should be spent in more useful things.
    Everyone should learn english anyway. Everything can't be translated.

    Comments
    1. By Anonymous Coward (80.127.223.181) on

      > Translation projects are useless. Manpower should be spent in more useful things.
      > Everyone should learn english anyway. Everything can't be translated.

      This, dear sir, is so not funny, and a rather *useless* comment. I respectfully bow to all translators!!



    2. By Anonymous Coward (62.252.32.12) on

      > Translation projects are useless. Manpower should be spent in more useful things.

      If you're going to tell people to learn English, you might want to improve your own while you're at it. I'll let you ponder out what you messed up :).

    3. By Morsello (201.52.221.25) on

      > Translation projects are useless. Manpower should be spent in more useful things.
      > Everyone should learn english anyway. Everything can't be translated.

      Technical translation (man pages, FAQ) are almost useless, and a source of documention "bugs", a very common issue in translations. This is my technical side speeking.

      Marketing material (and FAQ) translated into your language are good to "sell" to not-so-technical people the use of OpenBSD. This is my PT-BR side speeking.

      So, translating is good. Translating too much is useless.

      OpenBSD have one of the best and more precise documentation of any Unix product. Having the excellent FAQ translated in your language cannot be bad for the project or the newbies.

      Comments
      1. By Nick Holland (68.43.117.34) nick@holland-consulting.net on http://www.openbsd.org/faq/

        > Technical translation (man pages, FAQ) are almost useless, and a source
        > of documention "bugs", a very common issue in translations. This is my
        > technical side speeking.

        Actually, I'd disagree with this whole heartedly, at least in the case of OpenBSD, where the translators are volunteers who CARE about the product.

        While I always ask for technical oks before committing any change I'm not 99% sure of, having the translators go over the product as closely as they have to in order to make their translation spots and helps correct a HUGE number of errors, some stupid, some English, but many technical.

        So, while I think your comment there is probably accurate OVERALL for most technical translations (where the translators are paid language people, not interested technical people), in this case, the situation is different, and there is NO QUESTION in my mind that the translation team IMPROVES the website documentation, and removes far more errors than they introduce.

  2. By baldusi (200.126.158.144) on

    I've tried to help. But I had differences with the bulk of the translators since they are Spanish and thus want to over translate. In Latin America, we call the pointing device a "mouse", since it's a new concept. In Spain they want to call it a "ratón", which is a literal transaltion of mouse. Same with every single term. There was no point in having a constant patch war translating and untranslating words, so I decided to let them do their translation. But I have my theory that their way of doing things is extremely chauvinist. You can't go to the movies and watch subtitles, it's al dubbed!

    Comments
    1. By Anonymous Coward (81.86.19.241) on

      > I've tried to help. But I had differences with the bulk of the translators since they are Spanish and thus want to over translate. In Latin America, we call the pointing device a "mouse", since it's a new concept.

      A new concept, maybe. But they named it after an animal.

      >In Spain they want to call it a "ratón", which is a literal transaltion of mouse.

      In Spain everybody calls it "ratón". That is probably because they are not as americanised as most countries in Latin America.

      >Same with every single term. There was no point in having a constant patch war translating and untranslating words, so I decided to let them do their translation. But I have my theory that their way of doing things is extremely chauvinist.

      If you are going to leave all the technical words in English you might as well not bother translating.

      >You can't go to the movies and watch subtitles, it's al dubbed!

      Most of the crap coming out of Hollywood is more digestible when dubbed!

      Comments
      1. By rmg (208.181.115.2) on

        > > I've tried to help. But I had differences with the bulk of the translators since they are Spanish and thus want to over translate. In Latin America, we call the pointing device a "mouse", since it's a new concept.
        >
        > A new concept, maybe. But they named it after an animal.
        >
        > >In Spain they want to call it a "ratón", which is a literal transaltion of mouse.
        >
        > In Spain everybody calls it "ratón". That is probably because they are not as americanised as most countries in Latin America.

        If I'm not mistaken, there are more Spanish speakers OUTSIDE of Spain than there are in Spain.. so wouldn't a Latin American translation be more useful?

        ..but that aside, aren't there two separate localizations for Spanish? Like en_UK vs. en_US.. or how Quebec French is different than France French?

        I would encourage the original poster to instead look at making a separate translation effort.. if a pointer to your colleagues is "mouse", and they don't know English, then they won't know that "ratón" means the same thing. Probably a really lame example, but I think it illustrates the concept at least. The point being: translation is about making things usable to people.

        Comments
        1. By Anonymous Coward (24.37.153.171) on

          > ..but that aside, aren't there two separate localizations for Spanish? Like en_UK vs. en_US.. or how Quebec French is different than France French?

          In Québec there's an "Official" lexicon devised by governing body for the French language (Office de Langue Française). If other countries have similar [ridiculous and totalitarian] agencies, maybe their lexicon can be used... within reasonable limits: I just looked up byte on their site [1] and it returns multiplet. Not a a single person would understand me if I used the word multiplet instead of byte.

          Also they define e-mail as courriel (abbr: courrier électronique). In daily use, I make a point of using the English "words"; unsurprisingly, the French people I interact with have no trouble following me (though courriel is equally understood). Mél is apparently a very popular colloquialism of e-mail in France but not in Québec.

          [1] http://www.olf.gouv.qc.ca/ressources/gdt.html

      2. By baldusi (200.68.102.49) on

        > A new concept, maybe. But they named it after an animal.
        So using french, german, latin and arab words for everyday use is ok because it as made years ago. But using English words for completely new invetions will loose your national identity?

        > In Spain everybody calls it "ratón". That is probably because they are not as americanised as most countries in Latin America.
        First, just Mexico has way more Spanish speakers than Spain. In second place you can't say that Argentina is americanized. In fact, the most pure Castillian is spoken in Colombia. But I digress.

        > If you are going to leave all the technical words in English you might as well not bother translating.
        Having a couple of anglicisms in the document doesn't means it

        > Most of the crap coming out of Hollywood is more digestible when dubbed!
        Did you ever watched Kurosawa dubbed versus translated? There's so much communication in the spoken language that's not verbal and you're loosing.

        In any case the big point is that it has been easily achieved by some corporations to simply have one Spanish translation. In fact, most of Microsoft manuals (when they still printed them) used to have a section on the rationale of the translation. How they achieved a balanced point since the Latin American vs Spain is ver short sighted. The Argentinian Spanish is as different from Spain's as from Mexican's and the last two between them. You can't just consider those three countries, though. There are at least 20 countries in LA whose Official Language is Spanish. Each has it's own different cultures. Mixing a bit you might reduce that to what? 6 different groups (River Basin, Chile, Southern Andes, North Andes, Caribean and Mexico)? It's quite more useful to simply find a middle ground.

        Comments
        1. By Anonymous Coward (81.86.19.241) on

          > > A new concept, maybe. But they named it after an animal.
          > So using french, german, latin and arab words for everyday use is ok because it as made years ago. But using English words for completely new invetions will loose your national identity?

          I am from Galiza, couldn't give a toss about Spain's national identity.

          There are words that are unique and shouldn't be translated.

          > > In Spain everybody calls it "ratón". That is probably because they are not as americanised as most countries in Latin America.

          > First, just Mexico has way more Spanish speakers than Spain.

          Well they can start translating then.

          >In second place you can't say that Argentina is americanized.

          Well you certainly are "americanized" (your own word.

          Your rational for using "mouse" as you explained was wrong.
          You said it should not be translated because "it was a new concept", I pointed out that in Spain they use "ratón". I didn't say that was right or wrong.


          > In fact, the most pure Castillian is spoken in Colombia. But I digress.

          You were complaining about the "translators" being Spanish and wanting to impose their version, well if you want your version produce it.

          The point of translating technical documents is to get people to understand something. Not an exercise in linguistics.

          A big chunk of my friends are either from Bogota, Barranquilla or Buenos Aires. I was in BA for a month a couple of years back and to my standards it is more americanised that the place I come from.

          > > If you are going to leave all the technical words in English you might as well not bother translating.
          > Having a couple of anglicisms in the document doesn't means it

          When talking about computer related subject almost everything is a anglicism.

          >
          > > Most of the crap coming out of Hollywood is more digestible when dubbed!
          > Did you ever watched Kurosawa dubbed versus translated? There's so much communication in the spoken language that's not verbal and you're loosing.
          >
          > In any case the big point is that it has been easily achieved by some corporations to simply have one Spanish translation. In fact, most of Microsoft manuals (when they still printed them) used to have a section on the rationale of the translation. How they achieved a balanced point since the Latin American vs Spain is ver short sighted. The Argentinian Spanish is as different from Spain's as from Mexican's and the last two between them. You can't just consider those three countries, though. There are at least 20 countries in LA whose Official Language is Spanish.

          Each has it's own different cultures. Mixing a bit you might reduce that to what? 6 different groups (River Basin, Chile, Southern Andes, North Andes, Caribean and Mexico)? It's quite more useful to simply find a middle ground.


          If somebody has not learnt English it is either because they didn't want to or they couldn't. In the first case they will be more reticent to learn "foreign words". If somebody knows no English whatsoever they have a higher change of working out for themselves what is a raton than what is amouse.

          >
          >

          Comments
          1. By Anonymous Coward (83.5.210.88) on

            This is all very interesting but what I really want to know is if the portuguese translation is in portuguese portugeuse or brazilian portuguese? ;)


    2. By saad (193.252.46.95) saad@docisland.org on

      > I've tried to help.
      When? I have never seen a single translated file, patch or even a request from you to help us! Where is your work?

      And instead of quibbling about what a mouse should be called, work and let the translation coordinators do their job: arbitrate.

  3. By ajacoutot (193.49.69.249) on

    Helping translating the www branch is a time consuming, involving but
    really cool job. First, it forces you to read and understand the stuffs
    you're translating and I personnaly did learn a few things in the
    process.

    While I agree the OS itself (and the man pages) do not need to be
    translated (you need to at least be able to read English if you want to
    "do stuffs" in computing), I think it's good the different websites
    (OpenBSD, OpenSSH...) and the docs are translated as they are a frontend
    to the different projects and it makes easier for people to read about
    the work going on.

    Plus you can make new friends whom for the most part are OpenBSD devs ;-)

    We Want You !

  4. By mvanbaak (80.126.97.112) on

    too bad nl is done. And since that's the only language besides en I know, not much I can do nowedays.

  5. By Daniel Ouellet (66.63.10.94) on

    This tread is very interesting to me as I am not a native English, but sure learn it and was able to read technical books long before I ever been able to speak it. Take it in decade if you want. And I did a few times in my previous life read translated pages when possible to know what some part really meant then.

    So, my hat and heart goes to translators that share their talents and more importantly their times with all that may benefit from it and it is so sad to see how still there is narrow minded people that have nothing more useful to do then complaining on others for their time and efforts to make an improvements as little it might be in some cases but is sure a truck load more then all the winners that say they could careless and it's a waist of time doing a translations, or even worst, when you see a total "RED NECK" saying that all should speak English and so be it!

    To me, if all the winners would spend as much time doing good for the project as they do complaining, we sure would be putting OpenBSD in other worlds for sure as it would be to good to be Earth best OS only!

    But I guess some will never get it and still complains instead of appreciate the work of others that they got for free and respect the work and talents of others that are welling to share it will all of us!

    I for one appreciate your efforts and I am sure many others do!

    All the winners should be like spamers. Naked in the deserts and deprave of water hanging down of a cactus somewhere where all the desert creature could stop by and do their daily bathroom needs on their heads!

    Why don't you say thanks time to time, is that so hard, or do you hate your life so much that you need to try to destroy the one or everyone else that try to make it a better place and better understood OS by many that I guess cares to read the FaQ.

    Or may be, it's just a bunch of 3 years old that never read the FaQ in the first place and will go on misc@ and ask how to log in OpenBSD and the like instead of reading the wonderful FaQ to start with.

    I would only conclude that all the best books best sellers have been translated in many languages for a reason. May be because they are good!

    So, having your OS translated in many language is only a sign of that same success and respect.

    So, just give it what it deserved and STFU, or contribute in ways that you can other then putting better people then yourself down.

    Thanks and again many thanks to all the translators that share their talents with all of us!

    You may not get the feeling reading the above posts, but your work was and is appreciated by many!

    Best,

    Daniel

    PS: I guess like history have proven many times over. It's always easier to destroy things we simply don't understand oppose to seek to learn!

    Comments
    1. By dingo (198.208.251.24) on

      > So, just give it what it deserved and STFU, or contribute in ways that you can other then putting better people then yourself down.

      Yea!! You all talk too much! Stop posting and do something :)

      Comments
      1. By Daniel Ouellet (66.63.10.94) on

        > So, just give it what it deserved and STFU, or contribute in ways that you can other then putting better people then yourself down. > > Yea!! You all talk too much! Stop Yea!!! Just like I said. Keep talking instead of sending patches. So, where are yours? (;>

    2. By ajacoutot (213.41.244.253) on

      > All the winners should be like spamers. Naked in the deserts and deprave of water hanging down of a cactus somewhere where all the desert creature could stop by and do their daily bathroom needs on their heads!

      This is so funny it might be worth translating!

  6. By Kiraly Zoltan (86.125.253.236) yo2lux@nerdshack.com on

    Romanian translators please join the following mailing list: http://freebsdonline.com/mailman/listinfo/openbsd_freebsdonline.com to discuss everything about "Romanian" translation or contact me at: yo2lux@nerdshack.com

    Thanks!

  7. By Wu (80.59.46.59) wu@e-shell.org on http://www.e-shell.org

    Nice to read all that stuff... perhaps all of you remember my own initiative to begin a coordinated translation effort (spanish) some months ago (http://openbsd.bsdes.net).

    Well, after 2-3 months of hard work, only 3-4 people help, and after that, nothing. Not even a mail, neither more people willing to help... nothing.

    So the project is hanging in the air.

    And for all the latinamerican/spain war... Guys, spanish from spain is TOTALLY different from spanish from latinamerican. Of course, there are more people that speak mexican spanish, because the country is twice as bigger than spain, but that's not a reason for we (people living in spain) to be forced to read documentation in mexican (yes, mexican and not spanish from mexico).

    Personally, if I have to read in a language that is not spanish or galician (the languages i've learn since I was a kid), I prefer to read original docs written in english, that a mexican/portuguese/german/whatever translation.

    Do you understand the point? It is not a matter of which spanish is more pure, of we have to translate some terms or not, it is a matter of get the docs IN YOUR LANGUAGE.

    That's only an oppinion of course, so do not take it so seriously.

    mmm, and about the spanish obsd translation effort, my fault for thinking I was capable of helping with it, perhaps I didn't know how to get people more involved, or what...

  8. By Anonymous Coward (201.27.210.120) on

    Can anyone translate these posts? I can't understand them all. Thank you.

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