See:

I quickly sent the French text through a Machine Translator and edited it up to an understandable level. Just took about 2 minutes. I've pasted the English translation back in at the original post at :  

Subject : The French accepting foreigners Posted: November 27, 2005 2:55 PM Post #71203 —in reply to #70543

Jeff

Then with follow-up reply from Nanna in:

Subject : RE: I've provided a English version of the French text
Posted: November 27, 2005 4:01 PM
Post #71217 —in reply to #71214

Thanks Jeff,

The MT you are using - is it better than Google Translate? If so, and is it publicly available?

Nanna

Jeff,

French is often used and it's a recurring issue for me since I'm obviously in the non-speaking minority here at TC. A decent MT would be a godsend...

Nanna

Nanna,

I've partly answered your question above in another post at another site recently:

MT portals
http://www.proz.com/post/265985#265985

Also see the following post where I explain how Babelfish and Google Tools use the same underlying MT system:

Babelfish is not a system, but instead a portal powered by an MT system
http://www.proz.com/post/267076#267076

I use the software packaged tools of the MT vendors, because these software packages provide translation and post-editing features that speed up the process which are not available with the online MT systems (not possible to have add-on dictionaries and are restricted to a single-push button action and have no other features).

I primarily use PROMT v7 which is the software package of the online version at the e-promt site that is mentioned in the link above. I also have SYSTRAN v5 (which Google uses) and a few other MT systems as well that I am currently testing.

My set of articles at the TC site (http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/article50.htm), with short abstract statements about each of the articles, includes one article where I explain why Online Internet MT portals were set up.

Jeff

Also see:

Jeff

Copied over from another thread:   Subject : RE: Let's keep the thread about Frenchiness here Posted: November 27, 2005 7:30 PM Post #71234 —in reply to #71215

Originally written by Jeff Allen on November 27, 2005 9:50 AM Originally written by Laurent Chiacchierini on November 27, 2005 3:37 PM Conversely, there may be some French people who read English perfectly but would feel more comfortable if allowed to voice their opinions or explanations in French. I have nothing against leaving this thread here, as long as some French postings are allowed (although English is generally considered the lingua franca in non language-specific TC forums). I could even volunteer to try and summarize some "sibylline" French posts into English I also suggest that we keep the thread here in the Opinions forum and allow people to express themselves in French. I can also do quick gisting translations into English with MT software (with minor postediting revisions to ensure it is understandable). I do this at the office all the time for our non-Francophone managers. Jeff

Forgive me for saying so Jeff, and I realize this is off topic, but this is a translation website.  If you believe that the machine translation provided (the quick gisting) is acceptable at any level, you do a disservice to our profession.  I would think that on this website, of all places, you would provide a polished translation.  Even if it is "understandable" it represents the worst kind of dumbing down.
Paula

and member5578 replied:

I remember when the debate about what language should be used here raged two years ago some people said that they were using machine translation to help them understand postings in languages that they did not know very well. I was trying to find them but maybe they were posted in the moderators' forum, anyway I couldn't find them. In any event, if it can contribute a little to understanding between cultures (because surely no-one is going to pay to have TC postings translated anyway) that is positive. I'm sure nobody here thinks that machine translation is usable in a professional context, but I see nothing wrong to use it as a tool for the means we are taking about. In any event, it is certainly better than the English diktat that some people tried - unsuccessfully, thank god - to impose on this site.
I am writing this in English so that Nanna and others can understand but we should always bear in mind that some people do not understand English that well and as such are as precluded from discussions in English exactly as I am from the Arabic discussion, for instance.

Originally written by member5578 Subject : RE: What makes someone French? Posted: November 27, 2005 8:13 PM Post #71235 —in reply to #70069 I remember when the debate about what language should be used here raged two years ago some people said that they were using machine translation to help them understand postings in languages that they did not know very well. I was trying to find them but maybe they were posted in the moderators' forum, anyway I couldn't find them. In any event, if it can contribute a little to understanding between cultures (because surely no-one is going to pay to have TC postings translated anyway) that is positive. .....  but I see nothing wrong to use it as a tool for the means we are taking about. In any event, it is certainly better than the English diktat that some people tried - unsuccessfully, thank god - to impose on this site. I am writing this in English so that Nanna and others can understand but we should always bear in mind that some people do not understand English that well and as such are as precluded from discussions in English exactly as I am from the Arabic discussion, for instance.

Jean-Pierre, I very much agree with you about the use of MT for translating TC posts. 

And I can't speak or understand about 6,350 or so languages that exist on earth today.

Jeff

Originally written by Paula Rennie on November 27, 2005 7:30 PM Forgive me for saying so Jeff, and I realize this is off topic, but this is a translation website.  If you believe that the machine translation provided (the quick gisting) is acceptable at any level, you do a disservice to our profession.  I would think that on this website, of all places, you would provide a polished translation.  Even if it is "understandable" it represents the worst kind of dumbing down.

Paula, 

I see this type of translation need as simply a "short-term, perishable piece of information to facilitate communication", rather than a "long-term, usable translated product with impact on the image of an organization or person".  No one would want to pay nor would they pay for this kind of translation.  I conduct significant amounts of such volunteer free translation at the office (office memos, bits of human resources info to share with our UK office, meeting agendas and meeting minutes held in French with French customers that later need to be made available to our upper management in English, etc) as well as in a network of associations that I take part of in private life (email communication between US and French non-profit association members, information and advice about setting up sound-systems, basic level understanding documents of mtg minutes, etc.).  In all contexts, the minimal MT postedited translation that I have provided have always been completely acceptable and served their purpose.  None of these organizations would pay for such short-term perishable information. If they were told they had to pay for it, they would just go on without it.  However, it is reasonable to make a gist-level version when the readers have no understanding whatsoever of the source language.

It seems to me that the translation level of the text in question here on TC met the readers' needs.  Nanna, did it suffice for you?  If there are any questions about context or a word, I can always relook at and clarify that.

Another point to emphasize is that the only entity (organization or person) affected is me, and I have no problem with that since I clearly annonced the level of quality that was produced and the means by which it is done.  I made no promise for a high-level, double-reviewer checked  translation. It was announced as a step above non-post-edited MT output.  This corresponds to level 2 of a range of levels of MT output text quality that I described in my book chapter:

ALLEN, Jeffrey. 2003. "Post-editing". In Computers and Translation: A Translators Guide. Edited by Harold Somers. Benjamins Translation Library, 35. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (ISBN 90 272 1640 1).  click here

Even Laurent above offered to provide a summary idea of the texts, and not a full, polished translation. And we must remember that he would be translating from his native language into his second-language. Many translators I know would refuse the thought of a professional translator doing such a thing.  But I do it all the time for volunteer bi-directional interpretation activities in the various associations I have participated in over the years, and also to facilate basic communication between managers throughout all of my positions in my career in the software industry.

Also, Nanna admitted that she uses online Google Tools online MT systems to get an understanding of texts in languages that she doesn't speak. So this level 2 in the MT postediting range is a step above that.

If anyone here on the TC site has the time to create a high-quality translation of such texts, then that would be fine with me. Yet, I see that the majority of TC members are usually quite busy.  And I wouldn't have the time to spend translating such texts either.

Jeff

PS: I just noted that the John Benjamins site link above is down. It seems that their entire web site is down this weekend. A back-up link is:   http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/bobuk/scripts/home.jsp?action=search&source=3266474136&type=isbn&term=1588113779

Originally written by member5578 on November 27, 2005 9:20 PM Oh thank you, Jeff, you posted a whole library there! It looks awfully interesting, I shall take the time to read these articles. We have a client that is pressuring us into offering localisation and I can use whatever serious information I can get, which has not been a lot so far.

You are very welcome Jean-Pierre.

On the TC website libary, I have made available a part of all the articles, papers, chapters, presentations that I have published. I've started with these and will be adding more to the site.  Available at: http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/article50.htm   For the TC library, I wrote up a short abstract for each entry.

The full list is at my main website http://www.geocities.com/jeffallenpubs/ which is categorized into topic/thematic pages as well as by publisher.  I have a page specific to localization as well which is indicated at the Topcial page. 

I'm glad that my additions to the TC library could be of service.

Jeff

Originally written by member5578 on November 27, 2005 9:20 PM We have a client that is pressuring us into offering localisation and I can use whatever serious information I can get, which has not been a lot so far.

Also see my post:

Subject : defining: Globalization, Internationalization, Localization, Translation
Posted: September 6, 2005 12:26 AM
Post #64178 —in reply to #59652