[Sugar-devel] Translations

[Sora Edwards-Thro]

The success of the first translation will depend on how established /
knowledgeable the local community is. Reviewing the first round of Haitian
Creole translations, which I think were done by volunteers, you notice some
obvious problems, like inconsistent terms. I've personally seen students
and teachers become confused by these issues when using the computer. They
keep using it anyway, but it definitely affects the user experience. Now,
hopefully the attitude of "this is the wrong way to say it" will inspire
the next round of volunteers to do a better translation - but that's a big
assumption to make.

I think it's important to remember that in many of these places, language
ideology is something communities are working through. All the research
supports literacy / learning in the mother-tongue language, but in many
places the languages kids speak at home are seen as inferior to the ones
they learn in school - not just because the one they learn in school is
more widely-spoken, but because of myths that the language spoken at home
is not "advanced" enough to study something like science / math / tech.

So, basically, if the first translation is not adequate, there may not be a
second translation. People may decide "This language is not adequate for
using the computer" instead "Our translation is not adequate; let's make it
better."'



On Sat, Feb 20, 2016 at 7:51 AM, Adam Holt <holt at laptop.org> wrote:

> 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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