[Sugar-devel] Translations

[Adam Holt]

Excellent food for thought Tony!

+Sora, Tim, Nick, Caryl to see if they have ideas/suggestions below?
On Feb 20, 2016 3:35 AM, "Tony Anderson" <tony_anderson at usa.net> wrote:

> As I understand the issue: SugarLabs has some funds available to support
> translation of Sugar. At the SLOBs meeting, it was proposed that
> SugarLabs recruit a 'translation manager', a possibly paid position. One
> question is the job description for this role.
>
> I would like to review the translation process:
>
> Translation has two separate parts: internationalization(I18n) and
> localization (L10n).
>
> The Sugar-Devel team is responsible for I18n (preparing the framework to
> support localization) and the community is responsible for L10n - providing
> translations (by default, from English) to other languages.
>
> The immediate focus is on using Pootle as the I18n framework with
> translators providing the localization.
>
> Let's divide the languages into three groups:
>
>     - English (the base language)
>
>     - Mediums of instruction (languages used at deployments as a common
> language where more than one language is spoken)
>
>     - Local language (languages used by students at home)
>
> When a new Sugar release is made, the Pootle English master files should
> be a part of the release. Sugar development should ensure that Pootle files
> are available for all software in the release.
>
> Sugar may want to provide localization for one or more mediums of
> instruction (e.g. Spanish, French, Arabic). Since this would imply that
> files for these localizations are available at release, SugarLabs should
> decide which, if any, of these languages are to be supported.
>
> Deployments (or deployment sponsors) may need localization of Sugar for
> specific local languages (e.g. Kinyarwanda, Haitian Creole,
> Sotho, Xhosa). I believe these localizations are most likely to come from
> Sugar/XO deployments where the language is used. Some would
> seem to be a given - Cambodian.
>
> However, strange things happen. For example, Rwanda is one of the largest
> and most active deployments. However, there is no Kinyarwanda localization.
> The reason is probably that in Rwanda the OLPC laptops are part of a path
> to English. They are introduced at the fourth grade, the first year when
> the required medium of instruction is English. While Kinyarwanda is a
> subject in grades 4-6, the priority is using the XOs to facilitate learning
> in English, Mathematics, and Science.
>
> I believe that the Pootle files are distributed and installed with the
> released image. This should mean that XO users who know English and the
> native language could provide the localization. Once it is complete, the
> files can be installed on the XOs at the deployment and the localization
> would be available at the deployment. Ideally, localization would be done
> by the students as a learning activity. For example, in Rwanda,
> localization to Kinyarwanda would help students a lot in learning English.
> Sameer Verma has provided an excellent tutorial on how to do localization
> which could be included in the Sugar image.
>
> So, the translation manager would be responsible to identify deployments
> which use specific local languages and work with them to organize 'L10n'
> days for new releases. The translation manager should then interface with
> Pootle to submit the localization files for review and acceptance by Pootle.
>
> Sugar development could review Sugar (Python) activities to see if they
> support Pootle and attempt, eg. through GSOC, to get activities upgraded to
> implement Pootle and to include a base set of English Pootle files.
>
> Perhaps OLPC France could be tasked to provide French localization as part
> of the release process. For Spanish, perhaps Sebastian Silva (Peru) or Plan
> Ceibal could accept responsibility for Spanish.
>
> Meanwhile, being on the other side of the world, I have not made progress
> on getting a committee to help put their two cents in on this. Clearly,
> this scenario must be reviewed for Floss Manuals, Sugarizer, and other
> SugarLabs products which don't fit in this one. Also, how to provide
> localization of IIAB-2 content is, at least, a formidable question.
>
> Tony
>
>
>
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