BlogKindle translation

Since release of international Kindle 2 was announced this blog started getting significant number of visitors from outside of US. I decided that it would be nice to deliver the blog in many languages. However I’m only fluent in two and don’t have the resources to translate it manually to many languages that my visitors speak. I’ll have to go with automated translation for the time being.

I’ve enabled it for the following languages (based on the countries visitors come from):

You can also find the translation control at the bottom of left side-bar. If your language is not among these – drop me a comment. If I get enough requests I’ll add more languages.

The reason I didn’t enable them all is because the translation quality is rather poor. However this is something that you can help me with. The translation plugin that I use supports wiki-style modification of the translated pages. However in order to prevent spam and vandalism I don’t want to open editing to the entire world. If you speak one of the listed languages and would like to correct the automated translation now and then, I can email you login credentials for the translation editor.

To quickly translate more than 100+ languages on your iPhone use the translate app. It can translate photos, speech, text, screenshots and more.

Enjoy!

9 thoughts on “BlogKindle translation”

  1. As I am from Japan, I am apparently one of the non-US visitors. I used to do translation professionally and still do a little once in a while, so am familiar with the fallacy of machine translation. I took a look at the Japanese translation, and while the words are all generally there, it is both syntactically and semantically gibberish. It is so bad that it is not a matter of minor fixes, but rather a complete rewrite is necessary. While I would like to help occasionally, I am afraid that I really do not have the time.

    Just to give you an idea of how bad it is, let me translate the Japanese back into English. This is actually an improvement because much of the Japanese is so ungrammatical that there was no way to convey that in the translation.

    —-
    Since sale of international Kindle, 2 begin was announced of acquisition of great number of visitors from outside the US this blog. As for me, it in many languages, decided the splendid thing of providing blog. However, I’ proficient in only two meter, don’ton in manual my visitors have resource for translation into many languages of speak. So ‘ll for now must perform automatic translation.

    [skip]
    Also, a bar that can find to control translation on the bottom left. If between your language is not done. Delete my comment. If I receive enough requests ‘ I will add many languages from North Korea.

    That reason I didn’ this translation quality is bad make valid all of ton. However, this something, you and I are useful. is, support the style update of my wiki translated page a convert plugin that uses. However, spam and I want to open complete editing to the world, ton in order to prevent don destruction. the case and speak one of displayed languages, it will fix automatic translation, and I can send by mail translation editor login credential information.
    —-

    I also took a look at the Korean translation. I am not proficient enough to do real translation, but just like the Japanese translation, it is generally grammatically gibberish.

    Unless you have volunteers willing to actually translate the articles, I would recommend removing at least the Japanese and Korean machine translations. They are beyond repair.

  2. Machine translations remind me of Mark Twain’s “The Jumping Frog: in English, then in French, and then Clawed Back into a Civilized Language Once More by Patient, Unremunerated Toil”.

  3. It would be great if you can add Simplified Chinese translation for your blog. Since unicode hack was published, Chinese Kindle user numbers have been rapidly growing.
    Thank you and keep up the good job!

  4. I would be more than glad to give you a hand with the spanish version, if you need someone for the job. I don’t have any credentials, other than strong skills in both languages and a lot of free time at the moment =).

  5. I love to provide Chinese service, but I am worry the workload. If the workload is not too much, I hope I can provide such service for Chinese people.

  6. As this is volunteer work, I don’t any specific commitment. There many be several people fixing translations for the same language.

Leave a Reply

Comment moderation is enabled. Your comment may take some time to appear.