Improving translation process

[Jose J. Fernández]

Hello,

 

My name is Jose. I am a Spanish developer who works with PrestaShop quite often. I usually find issues with translations, and while there have been some efforts to solve them, I still feel that there's room for improvement.

 

I would like to bring this topic up: the quality of original English sentences, which I feel is somewhat low. That's to be expected since the Presta Team does not have English as mother tongue, but let's just find ways to improve

 

My questions for the PrestaTeam:

1. How do you generate English sentences? How can we improve this process?
2. Are those sentences kept between versions?
3. Do they need to be re-translated when a new version arrives?

I'm open to start, work and/or coordinate new efforts on this matter since I feel that this is preventing any improvement in quality of non-English translations. The community can't fix problems at this level, and from wrong sentences in English, wrong sentences would appear as a result. I still thing that we need a little more involvement from the Presta Team. I am aware of the Crowdin project and have contributed to it, actually, but the issues brought up here can not be solved with that tool.

 

Why am I opening this:

• Translations can be improved. Both English and, as a result, Spanish (which is my main language).
• I often find the same issues with Spanish, over and over again.
• Previous efforts on this have gone to nowhere (at least in the Spanish community).
• We can improve how we use Crowdin.
• I want to help and make things move.
• I love open source and just want to contribute. Time to give back.

What I am expecting:

• Getting to an English translation which feels natural and serves as a good starting point for all languages.
• Getting to a Spanish translation which feels natural.
• Improving the process so that everyone wastes less time re-translating everything and fixing stuff that has been already fixed.
• Create translation guidelines for Spanish, following with the work done here: https://www.prestashop.com/forums/topic/393702-hilo-oficialdocumentaci%C3%B3n-de-prestashop-en-espa%C3%B1ol/

 

Resources so far:

• http://build.prestashop.com/assets/ext/PrestaShop_Translator_Guide.pdf

 

As long as we discuss and find resources or info, I'm going to keep this updated. Comments from everyone are welcome, and input from the Presta Team would be greatly appreciated.

 

Kind regards

Edited June 21, 2016 by Jose J. Fernández (see edit history)

[PrestaHeroes USA]

you might find this useful:

https://crowdin.com/project/prestashop-official

[Jose J. Fernández]

I have already been collaborating in Crowding. It does not address the issues I am bringing up here.

[PrestaHeroes USA]

The real issue of 'translations' is not language, but managing translations....what's been updated, did  xlation get carried across....there are several companies now that help to try and manage translations.  how does one know when xlation missing in critical part of  website...other than eyeballing it.

 

So, if you want more elegant xlations, head over to crowding.  want better xlation management?  create one and make a million dollars.

 

also note, 1.7 will be using symfony for xlations, though i don't know of what improvement that will bring

[Jose J. Fernández]

I completely agree with your points, but I think I am not making mine clear. I'll try again:

 

- Original sentences (English) are sometimes BAD. Remember, PrestaTeam are native French speakers, not necessarily English.

- Often, translations are machine translations. They sometimes get preference over human-made translations, even on new versions.

- Translations are inconsistent.

 

Crowdin is fine. What is not are weaknesses in the process PrestaShop follows to manage translations. And that's why I am requesting participation from people in PrestaShop. I can't fix their process myself. I would have done that already.