Phone translations policy proposal

[David Planella]

On Fri, Apr 24, 2015 at 2:39 AM, Cheng-Chia Tseng <pswo10680 at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>
> Fòram na Gàidhlig <fios at foramnagaidhlig.net> 於 2015年4月24日 星期五寫道：
>
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>> > The benefit with opening translations in advance here would be that
>> > they would be done by Ubuntu Translators and would be consistent
>> > with each team's guidelines, which might not be the case for a
>> > translations agency. However, in any case for the projects
>> > eventually open-sourced, translators would be able to fix strings
>> > after release if required, fixes which would be then probably be
>> > shipped in an OTA update. My personal suggestion here would be to
>> > enable Ubuntu Translators to modify or complete the translations
>> > once the code is available. I know it's not a perfect solution, but
>> > I think it's the easiest in term of managing the logistics and
>> > working with manufacturers.
>>
>> How will selecting translation agencies work?
>>
>> I am doing commercial translation for a big software company and they
>> ended up using 5-6 agencies, which was a logistical nightmare. Since
>> we're a minority language and nobody else is qualified to do the job,
>> we could put our foot down, go through 1 agency only and thus
>> coordinate the work load.
>>
>> Of course, I don't know if Canonical has any power over which agencies
>> are selected.
>>
>> It should also be possible for volunteers to give Canonical a shout so
>> they can apply to register with the translation agency/agencies if
>> they want to. Why should others earn the money rather than those
>> people who have dedicated tons of their free time over the years. It
>> would also serve translation consistency.
>
>
> Totally agree with you. It would be better that Canonical could have
> existing translators who need jobs hired first. They know the workflow well
> and are familiar with the existing glossary translations.
>

I believe I addressed this point on my previous reply on the thread. If you
think it's not the case, please feel free to reply.


> The other question I am concerned with is the coordination between
> translation agencies and volunteer contributors.
>
> Mailing list perhaps?
>

The challenge here, as I mentioned on the original e-mail, is that some of
these projects (e.g. the bq scopes) were not public before release, and in
most cases

I also want to stress the fact again, that these projects are more the
exception than the rule. As you can see by picking up a phone or installing
Ubuntu for phones in an emulator, the huge majority of the code is open
source and openly translatable.


>
>
> For example, there are only 2 main translators for traditional Chinese. It
> could be said that we don't have much chance to have the language 100%
> translated. Translation agencies must be involved in this case.
>
> However, I have seen many translations of games available in Android or
> iOS store are in poor quality that we are always laughing at the
> translations. It is believed the work was done by some cheap translation
> agencies.
>

I can assure you this hasn't been the case for the outsourced OEM projects
so far.


>
>
> We, the translators, would like to ensure the quality of translations so
> they should follow the guidelines we set and keep the translation in
> consistency.
>

Indeed, I think that is an important point you are making. I think it's
more than reasonable to ask agencies to consider the translation
guidelines, and could be done. The more it's important for translation
teams to have a curated set of guidelines available and up-to-date.

Cheers,
David.
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