Anyone up for a translation ?

taximania · #1 (**permalink**) 03-18-2008, 08:05 PM

I've recently had a Dutch guy contact me about a page on my website.
He didn't totally understand my directions.

If anyone has any spare time, any chance of a translation of my English webpage into your native language.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/taximania/maxx/repair.html

Many thanks if you have the time

klaus · #2 (**permalink**) 03-19-2008, 09:26 PM

Hi taximania,
I don't know if you wanted only a Dutch translation, but I joined one into French.
Nevertheless, there are many people speaking French in the Netherlands.
I have not tried, to translate the text with a software translator, made some bad experiences.

Best regards
Klaus
Switzerland

taximania · #3 (**permalink**) 03-20-2008, 07:45 PM

Many thanks Klaus, I've added the zip file to my website

Any chance of a Swiss one

@CableGuy, Maybe a Portugese one

taximania · #4 (**permalink**) 03-20-2008, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by klaus

I have not tried, to translate the text with a software translator, made some bad experiences.

That's why I asked on here.

Klaus

Cableguy · #5 (**permalink**) 03-20-2008, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by taximania

@CableGuy, Maybe a Portugese one

Will do...maybe saturday in the afternoon....ok?

klaus · #6 (**permalink**) 03-20-2008, 10:34 PM

Hi taximania
What do you mean with a swiss one, there is no real swiss language.
In my country there are 4 languages spoken:
- Swiss German which is a non written german dialect
- French
- Italian
- Romanch
Well I speak german, french and english, but even though german is my mother language, I feel now more comfortable in french, living for about 50 years in the french speaking part of the country.
I think that there are people on the forum able to translate your text to German better than I would do. If in next time there is nobody I will try it.

I just had a look at your website, I suggest that you unzip the french file, it's a Word file, I ziped it because of size limitations for Word files on the forum, 131kB zip, 157kB Word, the difference is not that big.

Just for fun, in the joined file, I have translated your text with Google into French and back into English.

Best regards

taximania · #7 (**permalink**) 03-21-2008, 08:44 AM

Google or Bable might be fine for small snippets,
but it doesn't translate back very good, ha ha ha

klaus · #8 (**permalink**) 03-21-2008, 09:08 AM

I have tried both, Google and Babel, with your text.
The translations back to English are less funny than the French translations. Even with a lot of imagination they are almost not understandable.
But your text is a technical text and in these cases the software translators are really weak.
This reminds me some user's guides of consumer products I read.
For more standard text they are usefull.
I regulary look at the B4PPC Foreign Language Forums and translate the texts with Google. It is really much better and understandable than the translations of your text.
I know how difficult translations are, so I don't decry these software translators.
What I found with your text is, that the Google translator gave a much more realistic French translation than Babel did. But a few phrases were better translated by Babel than by Google.

Best regards