[sustran] The fine art of reading machine translations on World Streets. - for comment

[Eric Britton]

The fine art of reading machine translations on World Streets.
 
To make the contents of World Streets more broadly accessible to friends and
colleagues who work primarily in other language groups, we have linked the
site to the increasingly well-performing Google machine translation engines
that you will now find here. In each case all you have to do is click the
language in which you wish to see the rough translation, and it will quickly
appear on your monitor. But that, dear reader,  is just the beginning of the
story.
 
Almost anybody who loves their language will be offended to what is
generated by machine translations in general, including those of the sort
that we have programmed here and strongly recommend for use here on World
Streets.  (Offended to the point where, incidentally, I have noticed that
the more that my reacting friends and correspondents are devoted to their
language, the louder they squeal when confronted with the text that pops out
of the machine translate button. And they make their views known in no
uncertain terms to me as the source of this massacre. Thus is the nature of
culture and the human comedy.).
 
So, should we give up on machine translations?
 
Okay, what pops up here may not magically solve all of our international
communications  problems in one swoop -- but before we give up too quickly
on what just may be a valuable tool in an imperfect world, let's take a few
minutes to reflect together on how this works. - a user-side view of machine
translations for World Streets and for you.  (For starters and just in case
you have not followed the approach which Google, as our favored translating
device, has taken in all this --
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Translate is a not bad point of
departure.)
 
So this is the point. What we can expect from these technologies at this
point is not perfect text in our wonderful treasured language but a series
of clues, gists and hints, in which almost every individual word appears to
be boldly and without doubt in the destination language.  Indeed, one of the
problems is that as we run our eyes over the succession of words we have the
impression that they are intended to convey, as they stand, the full and
precious meaning of the original. (Which in fact they very often succeed in
doing quite nicely, but that too is part of the problem.  When it works
well, it can lull us to expect that the machine is going to work just as
well all of the time. But no no.)
 
So what's the answer?
 
In  a phrase, we need to read differently if we are going to get best value
out of these tools.
 
The operative analogy is that of listening to a conversation under difficult
sound conditions. In such noise-filled environments individual words and
phrases can disappear and often the context is not all that clear. But if we
are really interested in following what is being said, we put our brains to
work in a scanning mode and start to use our imagination and contextual
knowledge to fill in the dots.  As a result, we end up understanding what we
work to understand - with all the necessary prudence on interpretation that
this requires - and that is the reward for our efforts.
 
How does this voice scanning technique interpret to reading in this case?
 
Let me give you my best thoughts on this based on long personal experience
of working with (and trying to work with )these tools, and not of course as
an expert in translation, nor in reading, and certainly not as a
neurologist. 
 
My suggestion to you is that the first time you look at the translation you
make sure that you have the full translated text before you, and then you
run your eye on a diagonal over the page, scanning it to see if in a very
brief space of time you can get a sense of what it seems to be all about.
Now, while that is not a translation per se, it does provide the diligent
flexible reader with a first set of clues as to what the original may be all
about. 
 
That already in my book is useful information. Of course it may not be
enough for your purposes, but if you were interested to know more about a
project or group in Finland or Korea, now you at least have a first set of
hints. (Thank you Google.)
 
Then in a next step I would suggest that you read the translation side by
side with the English-language original in front of you, you will in almost
all cases be able to arrive at a pretty fair understanding of the thrust and
main content of that particular article or announcement. It is of course not
a substitute for a professional translation, but it can be extremely helpful
for those who are ready to make an effort to use it with judgment.
 
So there you have it. The World Streets self-assigned language doctor
recommends that you take and use this remedy  when you need it, but make
sure you read the notice on the bottle.
 
Eric Britton,
Editor and cautious (if often hilarious) daily user of the best of these
technologies since 1993
 
PS So what's wrong with English for World Streets? 

Actually working in English gives us a great start in reaching an
international readership-- various statistics indicate that it is the first
language of going on to four hundred million people, and if you include
second language speakers the number moves up to something on the order of
half a billion. That is five hundred million good souls who can, one would
hope, pick up and read daily articles in World Streets with ease. That is a
big number. 

But let's not exaggerate. On the other hand it leaves out on the order of
six billion people organize their daily lives around other languages, and
since it is our chosen mission to create and reinforce networks of people at
various levels of government and participation in public life around the
world in matters of sustainable transport, we would be remiss in our
function if we neglected this important fact. With this in mind, we have
from the beginning of publication continuously brainstormed with anyone who
cared to join us on the matter of how to get the contents of World Streets,
and with it the leading edge of worldwide developments and thinking in the
field of sustainable transportation, into the hands of the people who are
working in countries in cities around the world where working language is
other than English.
 
We asked some of our readers working from other language background to
comment on these translations, and if you click here
<http://newmobilityagenda.blogspot.com/2009/02/translating-world-streets-int
o-other.html#comments>  you will be able to see what they have to say -
http://newmobilityagenda.blogspot.com/2009/02/translating-world-streets-into
-other.html#comments 
 
 
 
 
Best/Eric
 
 <http://www.britton.newmobility.org/> Eric Britton |
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