Help:Extension:Translate/Translation best practices/it

Per diventare un buon traduttore si ha bisogno di molta pratica. Molti, se non la maggior parte, dei traduttori volontari, non hanno una formazione professionale come traduttore. Non c'è da meravigliarsi che la qualità delle opere tradotte da tanti volontari a volte sia scarsa. Ma anche le cattive traduzioni sono quasi sempre meglio di nessuna traduzione! E' sempre più crescente il bisogno di traduzioni rispetto al numero dei traduttori disponibili. Per l'aspetto sociale, i traduttori dovrebbero unificarsi e noi li incoraggiamo ad assumere l'atteggiamento chiedi, non tirare ad indovinare, mentre gli amministratori di traduzione dovrebbero rispondere alle domande e accogliere i nuovi traduttori.

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.

Introduzione
Before starting, make sure you are able to type and read in your language. This might involve installing additional fonts and key maps for your computer.

Orient yourself. You might find many reasons to translate, whether you just do it for fun, hone your skills and accumulate credit or just want to give something back to the causes you support. You should understand and adopt the core principles of translation, like translating the meaning, not word by word, but still trying to be as close as possible to the original text.

Try to join pre-existing translation communities and ask others to review your work. You will encounter non-linguistic mark-up like variables and wiki text when translating. The gist in that is to recognize what parts should be left untranslated and what is the special meaning of them.

Documentazione del messaggio
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 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.

Coerenza
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.

Ulteriori letture

 * Localizzazione Foss manuale - http://www.africanlocalisation.net/foss-localisation-manual
 * Buona introduzione per i traduttori, ma i capitoli sugli strumenti di altre localizzazioni non sono rilevanti.


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