Re: English text to Spanish

Hello to all,

As one who has taught English, did running interpretations frequently as
well, and have done lots of translation work too, and setting up an
English<->Spanish translation service, I'm sure there does *NOT* exist any
reliable translator software anywhere. There is a translation function on
some Web sites, but if you know both languages well you know you get good
translations of most words, maybe, but plenty utter nonsense (say, 10 to 15
percent?).

You get into real danger, especially the way AS/400 program-generated
documents are frequently worded, and even more with the lingo of our trade
and even business variations. That is, the wrong little word here or
there...

I see very real possiblities, but it has a long way to go. From what I've
seen it is not yet ready for "prime-time" computing. In Spanish and likely
other languages it is good to consider variations between countries, too.
There are sharp variations between countries, likely in other languages as
well, in general usage, but resulting in a word *VERY* common in some
countries being a *VERY* taboo word in others.

One note: translation software may help actual translators accelerate their
work, but you'll get no
substitute for a real native or "near-native" literate translator. In fact,
translation software results to me does not count as translation. At the
minimum, after running a translation, get someone to edit, preferably a good
speaker.

- Alan


----- Original Message -----
From: <theresa.luebeck@springs.com>
To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2001 12:07 PM
Subject: English text to Spanish


> Does anyone know of a software product out there that will convert a
string
> of English text to Spanish on the AS/400?  We would like to be able to
> print certain parts of documents in Spanish.  Thanks in advance.
>
> Terry Luebeck
> Sr. Systems Engineer
> Springs Window Fashions
> 608-828-4080
>
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----- Original Message -----
From: <MacWheel99@aol.com>
To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2001 5:24 PM
Subject: Re: English text to Spanish


> The AS/400 comes with the capability of having multi-language support,
which
> some software products use, such as BPCS.  We do not use this, but my
> understanding is that it merely has fields & chunks of data that might
show
> up on a screen or a report header or error message, written in a
particular
> human language, it is not a translation tool.
>
> Now there are language translation packages for use on the PC & I imagine
> that with ability to send 400 data to PC & vica versa, it might be
practical
> to have some 400 output go to PC, be translated to language of choice,
then
> go back to 400.
>
> The problem as I understand it is that the state of art of PC language
> translation can be a bit brain dead.  Have you ever used a grammar checker
on
> a PC word processor?  Does it seem like this software was developed by
> someone who knows the rules but not how they are applied in the real
world?
>
> I do not believe the state of art is such that you could have a clerk who
> knows only English, prepare some document on the 400, run it through
> translator software & send it off to foreign country & expect foreign
> language speaker to make heads or tails of it.
>
> I think state of art is such that you have to have like boiler plate
> documents & parts of documents in which you have the English version & the
> Spanish version & some assurance they have identical meaning & someone
> reading one version says "Oh I want the other language version of this."
But
> if they need to re-write their language version, then they need to send
the
> result in their language to a professional human translator before the
result
> in the other language gets sent out.
>
> > Subj:  English text to Spanish
> >  Date:    02/25/2001 12:29:19 PM Central Standard Time
> >  From:    theresa.luebeck@springs.com
> >
> >  Does anyone know of a software product out there that will convert a
> > string
> >  of English text to Spanish on the AS/400?  We would like to be able to
> >  print certain parts of documents in Spanish.  Thanks in advance.
> >
> >  Terry Luebeck
> >  Sr. Systems Engineer
> >  Springs Window Fashions
> >  608-828-4080
>
> MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)
> AS/400 Data Manager & Programmer for BPCS 405 CD Rel-02 mixed mode (twinax
> interactive & batch) @ http://www.cen-elec.com Central Industries of
> Indiana--->Quality manufacturer of wire harnesses and electrical
> sub-assemblies - fax # 812-424-6838
>
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>

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