Technical paper in 6 languages (including code comments)

[Frederick Gotham]

I'm writing a paper that I want translated into 6 languages before I publish it:
German, Russian, Chinese(Mandarin), Spanish, French, Arabic

My paper will include C++ code that is heavily commented, so whoever's translating my paper will need to know how to translate comments like this:

if ( p ) *p = 0; /* Careful not to dereference nullptr */

memcpy(p,&i,0); /* Don't use '=' in case not aligned */

My paper in total will be in the region of about 600-800 words to translate. I'm hoping to purchase a package deal for all 6 languages which won't leave me too much out of pocket.

Any recommendations?

[Jorgen Grahn]

Do programmers in these countries expect comments to be in their
native language? For the combination C++ / Sweden, I have never seen
it: code is IME always in English, at work and at university.
(But I admit we are fairly extreme in that area.)

/Jorgen

--
// Jorgen Grahn <grahn@ Oo o. . .
\X/ snipabacken.se> O o .

[cda...@gmail.com]

Well, just a minor point. Spanish in (parts of) Spain is referred to as Castellano whereas Spanish in parts of Latin America is referred to as Spanish. This kind of matters because both Spain and Latin America speak slightly different dialects of Spanish.

[Real Troll]

On 25/03/2020 08:34, Frederick Gotham wrote:
>
>
> Any recommendations?

First publish the paper in your own language and let the readers decide
whether it is worth wasting time translating it into other languages.

[Christian Gollwitzer]

Am 25.03.20 um 09:34 schrieb Frederick Gotham:

>
> I'm writing a paper that I want translated into 6 languages before I publish it:
> German, Russian, Chinese(Mandarin), Spanish, French, Arabic

You probably overthink this. Technical papers are usually published
exclusively in English, especially if they ar ein the field of computer
science (and most other fields, too). Notable exceptions are linguistic
papers or papers with national themes like legal problems.

So just write it up in English and submit to a fitting journal - you'll
find that publishing it in one English language journal is hard enough.

Christian

[Vir Campestris]

On 25/03/2020 08:34, Frederick Gotham wrote:

> I'm writing a paper that I want translated into 6 languages before I publish it:
> German, Russian, Chinese(Mandarin), Spanish, French, Arabic

I've never known a software engineer who can't read English with a
reasonable level of proficiency.

Writing it is another matter - I've seen some really odd "Chinglish",
and even my Danish colleagues produce some odd phrases occasionally.

Andy

[James Kuyper]

On Wednesday, March 25, 2020 at 8:09:31 AM UTC-4, cda...@gmail.com wrote:
...

> Well, just a minor point. Spanish in (parts of) Spain is referred to
as Castellano whereas Spanish in parts of Latin America is referred to
as Spanish.

You should be more consistent - you should use either Spanish terms or
English terms to describe those dialects. Mixing them up adds confusion
to an issue which was already confused to start with.

"Castellano" is a Spanish term, corresponding roughly to the English
term "Castillian" or "Peninsular Spanish". "Spanish" is an English term
that covers all of the dialects, including those in Spain and in Latin
America. It corresponds roughly to the Spanish word "Español" - except
that I gather that, in Spain, "Castellano" and "Español" are often
considered synonyms (I've seen people in this newsgroup do the same
thing with "British English" and "English"). I'm not sure whether that
means they interpret "Castellano" as including the Latin American
dialects, or that they interpret "Español" as excluding them.

As far as I can tell, in neither language is there a single simple term
that describes all of the dialects of Spanish that are spoken in Latin
America. As it says at
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language_in_the_Americas>:

"Linguistically, this grouping is somewhat arbitrary, akin to having a
term for "overseas English" encompassing variants spoken in the United
States, Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand and Ireland, but not the
Island of Britain. There is great diversity among the various Latin
American vernaculars, and there are no traits shared by all of them
which are not also in existence in one or more of the variants of
Spanish used in Spain."

In English those dialects may be described as "Latin American Spanish".
<https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espa%C3%B1ol_de_Am%C3%A9rica> uses
"español americano".

[Frederick Gotham]

Jorgen Grahn wrote:

> Do programmers in these countries expect comments to be in their
> native language? For the combination C++ / Sweden, I have never seen
> it: code is IME always in English, at work and at university.
> (But I admit we are fairly extreme in that area.)

Christian Gollwitzer wrote:
> You probably overthink this. Technical papers are usually published
> exclusively in English, especially if they ar ein the field of computer
> science (and most other fields, too).

Even if 99% of people don't bother having their paper translated into other languages, I shall.

Vir Campestris wrote:
> I've never known a software engineer who can't read
> English with a reasonable level of proficiency.

I want beginner programmers and cryptographers to be able to read my paper in a language they understand (instead of running it through Google Translate). And also there might be a proficient programmer, cryptographer or mathematician who isn't good with languages -- I have a friend who's a high school math teacher and he's not good with languages.

[Christian Gollwitzer]

Am 26.03.20 um 08:53 schrieb Frederick Gotham:

> Jorgen Grahn wrote:
>
>> Do programmers in these countries expect comments to be in their
>> native language? For the combination C++ / Sweden, I have never seen
>> it: code is IME always in English, at work and at university.
>> (But I admit we are fairly extreme in that area.)
>
> Christian Gollwitzer wrote:
>> You probably overthink this. Technical papers are usually published
>> exclusively in English, especially if they ar ein the field of computer
>> science (and most other fields, too).
>
>
> Even if 99% of people don't bother having their paper translated into other languages, I shall.

Your choice.

I would still suggest that you first write the paper in English, and
translate it afterwards only, as soon as it is finished. Then you can
worry about the translation of the comments.

In any case, you will need a proficient translator who is, in the ideal
case, an expert in the field with their native tongue of the target
language. Just some random translator will produce garbage.

For some experience: I'm working in a scientific institute of the German
government, we do have an internal translation and grammar checking
service which does English and French, and we can request translations
into other European and world languages which is realized by services
from professional entrepreneur translators.

I've used this sevice in the past for German->English and
English->German translations, and for English language corrections. In
all instances, they mistranslated/miscorrected some sentences because
these people have studied languages, not physics - even if they know it
better than most other translators, through experience in our institute.
There are usually one or two iterations until both of us - the physics
expert and the language expert - are happy. I can't imagine how this
would work for a language which I do not understand, such as Arabic or
Chinese. Unless you do speak these languages on an intermediate level,
you'll need an expert friend with their mother tongue in the target
language to crosscheck it.

Christian

[Frederick Gotham]

Christian wrote:
> There are usually one or two iterations until both of us
> - the physics expert and the language expert - are happy.
> I can't imagine how this would work for a language which
> I do not understand, such as Arabic or
Chinese.

Thank you for this. It was a lot more clear cut in my head.

Is there any translation firm which is held in particularly high regard for translating technical papers (e.g. to do with mathematics or computing).

[James Kuyper]

On 3/26/20 3:51 PM, Frederick Gotham wrote:
...

> Is there any translation firm which is held in particularly high regard for translating technical papers (e.g. to do with mathematics or computing).

This newsgroup has readers all around the world. Do you care which
country(s) the translation firm operates in? If so, you should specify
your preferences.

I recommend getting prepared for some sticker shock when looking for a
highly regarded technical translating firm. Such firms tend to charge
correspondingly high prices. In your first message you said "I'm hoping

to purchase a package deal for all 6 languages which won't leave me too

much out of pocket." If your budget is sufficiently small that you're
worrying about such things, you probably can't afford a "highly
regarded" firm - you should set your target a little lower than that.

I have no recommendations of my own - the only translator I know
personally could handle your need for a Russian translation, but I've
never actually used her services, so I can't vouch for how good she is.

[Vir Campestris]

Just FYI we have end-user product running in several countries.

We've managed to have engineers from most of the companies most of the
time. Even then... we've just had to explain to our USA masters that the
language they speak in Quebec isn't the same as the one spoken in France.

Andy

[cda...@gmail.com]

You've clearly never worked with a bunch of day laborers from Central America.