Some translations are incorrect, what should I do about them?
Hi,
I'm one of the admins for the Oppia project. Recently, while importing translations, I found that some translations in Bahasa Indonesia seem to mimic the English text exactly and are basically not translated at all:
Is there some way to mark these as invalid? Thanks!
You can mark them to be translated by adding the prefix "!!FUZZY!!" in them, they will be shown like if there was a new source to be updated, with a yellow bar in the input box. Note that for short technical words, it is possible that Indonesian does nto change them from English. But if you think it can be enterely retranslated, delete the value by keeping only the "!!FUZZY!!" text in them (this will avoid a "fast click" where a user revalidates the input instantly without typing anything), but this won't validate in the UI if there are missing required variables. If you're a translation admin with bulk import rights, you may upload these translation units with fuzzy markers.
- Also note that Indonesian and Malaysian are extremely similar languages (with minor differences in a few terms, they are in fact just different standards of the same language, speakers in both languages can understand each other, but there may exist some controversial terms where both languages disagree about the best term to use): if there are valid messages in Malaysian, you may use the existing valid Malaysian text to override the English text to be used in Indonesian (just add the "!!FUZZY!! mark before the borrowed Malaysian text). Wikimedia for example uses language fallbacks from one to the other before using an English fallback.. That fallback to Malaysian should be used with care for translation of the main presentation page on your site ("About Oppia").
Beware that deleting units may also impact previous valid translations: try first to revert these units, adding the "!!FUZZY!!" marker on the reverted translation if still needed. But you may still get valiadtion errors if there are missing required placeholder variables.
If this affects a large number of entries from the same user, you should alert the user or signal him in a discussion, asking the community for the affected translation units.
- (I see for example that a number of untranslated units in Oppia were submitted by User:DARMAS BUDI SANTOSO, see their contribution log on 5 December 2022, but also in last September: everything he did is a copy of the English text. It is a sign that that user should be warned. The rest of Oppia Messages in Indonesian seem to be OK, with just a few English borrowed terms like "forum" or "username", which may be questionable but that are apparently also used in Indonesian for other translation projects in Wikimedia or elsewhere, an Indonesian and Malaysian "nama pengguna" alternative to "username" is also found.)
In your data export from TWN to your project you may implement your own validation tests for questionable entries before they go into your repository.
But I think it may be more efficient if you ask to some trusted Indonesian translators that made an apparently good job to work on these units and submit valid translations that others will be able to review and revalidate (in that case there will be no FUZZY mark, and no need to worry about missing or invalid placeholders. You may join these translators by posting a message into somme community boards (not limited to this site, possibly in Indonesian Wikipedia, or some of your educational working teams or organizations in Indonesia that will use your application, e.g. teachers in schools) if you need help to get more translators and reviewers.
If these possible translators that you could contact are not cumfortable with TWN, or if they don't want to create their own accounts here on TWN, you may ask them to translate required texts using any side channel (e.g. by email or in online community forums, then edit them yourself in your bulk exported file, before reuploading it here (with the bulk import), so that only a review will be needed. In such situation, this is a sign that there's not enough Indonesian translators in TWN for now to create the good translations you need and that you should attempt to promote your translation project and explain why they are needed, and how they can help, and the benfit for the Indonesian communities you want to support with Oppia.
Verdy p, if you don't know the answer, don't write an answer, especially such a long one. This is yet another one of your many responses, which are ultra-long, and entirely useless. I've already warned you about this.
Hi Seanlip,
Thank you for flagging this!
This is either vandalism or misunderstanding by a certain user.
I have deleted all this English text and removed their permission to translate.