Help:Extension:Translate/Translation best practices/de

Becoming a good translator needs lots of practice. Many if not most volunteer translators don't have formal translator training. It is no wonder that the quality of many volunteer translated works is sometimes wanting. But even bad translations are almost always better than no translation at all. There are always more translations needed than translators available. For the social aspect, translators should group together and we encourage them to take the ask, don't guess attitude, while translation administrators should be responsive to questions and welcome new translators.

One can become a good translator in specific contexts even without formal training, but it needs many years of experience. It is possible to speed up this process, if translators are provided direct and constructive feedback through a review process. Even experienced translators can learn and it's always good to have someone else check for spelling errors and such.

The long journey starts from the basics. Translators should know their own language, the spelling of words and what is considered as good grammar. For small languages that are just starting to use computers and Internet, even the way to spell words or the vocabulary itself might still be under discussion. Regardless, translators should be prepared to create something new – there are bound to be words and concepts that have not been translated into their language before. Obviously, translators should understand enough of the language they are translating from.

erste Schritte
Bevor du anfängst, versichere dich, dass du in deiner Sprache tippen und lesen kannst. Dies kann beinhalten, zusätzliche Schriftarten und Tastaturübersichten auf deinem Computer zu installieren.

Orientiere dich. Du findest vielleicht viele Gründe, um zu übersetzen: ob du es nur aus Spaß tust, deine Fähigkeiten verbessern und Anerkennung erhalten willst oder ob du lediglich den Dingen, die du unterstützt, etwas zurückgeben willst. Du solltest die Kerngrundlagen für Übersetzungen verstehen und übernehmen, wie zum Beispiel die Bedeutung zu übersetzen und nicht Wort für Wort, aber weiterhin versuchen, so nah wie möglich am Originaltext zu bleiben.

Versuche, dich vorher existierenden Übersetzungsgemeinschaften anzuschließen, und bitte andere darum, deine Arbeit zu überprüfen. Du wirst beim Übersetzen auf nicht-sprachliche Auszeichnungen wie Variablen und Wikitext stoßen. Das Wesentliche dabei ist es, zu erkennen, welche Teile unübersetzt bleiben sollten und was ihre besondere Bedeutung ist.

Nachrichtendokumentation
The plain source text is not enough to make good translations. This is more relevant in shorter texts, but it applies to all texts. With the Translate extension, along with each message, there is a place to provide context and more information for translators; such message documentation is wiki text and can contain anything from links to images. It might take a few minutes minutes to write good documentation for a message, but that documentation will save each of the potentially hundreds of translators a minute or more and produce higher quality translations, so it's definitely worth it.

It is possible to configure an Ask question button to show up in the translation editor. This provides a low barrier and very direct way for translators to make sure they are making a good translation, instead of making a best guess translation. Of course you should make sure that someone will be on the target support page to answer the questions and update the message documentation, otherwise translators will only be discouraged.

Einheitlichkeit
The translation administrators can make glossaries and link them from the group description or use them in the translation documentation descriptions. When multiple translators work together, it is crucial that they first of all recognize the terminology, and secondly that they use the same translations. When making glossaries, it is a good idea to write a short definition for each term instead of just providing translations. The definition helps translators to understand and apply them better in their translations, and is also a good exercise to improve consistency in source texts.

weiterführende Lektüre

 * Floss localisation manual - http://www.africanlocalisation.net/foss-localisation-manual
 * Good introduction for translators, but the chapters about other localisation tools are not relevant here.


 * FOSS localisation - FOSS Localization
 * Less translator oriented book which talks about localisation in a bigger picture. Contains some information about localisation efforts in Asia.