A Rose by any other Name - Content for the WEB

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A Rose by any other name is a WHAT?!?!
or ... How NOT to Publish on the WEB
by Joann Chokrach

The author is the former International Editor for the International Real Estate Digest. The following story originally appeared on IRED in 1996. The story is true!

The Idea! ...
I know that even if a person can read another language, it is easier and more comfortable for them to read in their native language. IRED has a large number of international visitors, so translating pages into other languages just made sense. I was determined to make IRED available to the world.

I know computer generated translations are not perfect. Sentence structure and syntax are a bit on the lame side, and in some cases words get changed around. I had even done a review of Globalink's WEB Translator, so I knew where the pitfalls were.

But the idea of adding multi-lingual translations to IRED was too compelling.

Ignoring the advice of everyone,including the publisher of WEB Translator, I forged ahead with my brilliant idea. It took less than 10 minutes to translate 8 pages into French, German and Spanish. This was so easy! I wondered why more people weren't doing it.

How bad could it be?
My new pages were up, and they looked great! " Sheer brilliance", I thought. I wondered how long it would be before the accolades came pouring in.

The French were the first to respond. Of the dozen or so letters I received in those first 24 hours, most said that the translations were "very, very, very, bad" .

Several people offered to help me with this project. One person even went so far as to say, "the French translations would be completely useless to anyone who ACTUALLY spoke French".

I was beginning to think maybe this wasn't such a great idea after all.

Three Interfaces, One Red Face
In retrospect, it appears the French were being extraordinarily diplomatic and gracious in their criticisms.

36 hours after the translated pages went up, I received a post from Susanne Hagen, at Estate-Net in Germany. Susanne and I have corresponded before. Ordinarily she's direct and to the point. Her letter began with "Please take this as friendly ..." I knew I was in trouble.

Susanne mentioned, " ... there were MANY mistakes" in the German translation.
One in particular - the word link was translated into the German word which means, er, ah, uh ... "the thing men have that women don't. Instead of inviting people to Add-A-Link to the IRED Directory, it seems I was telling them to, "to lift your ... up" ... and in boldface no less!

Panic set in. These pages had been posted on the WEB 36 hours! IRED had over 6000¹ visitors a day. How many of them actually read those pages? I was so flustered, I hit the wrong key, locked up my entire system, and had to reboot. After three attempts, I was able to sign on, and delete the translated pages.

motarboard

A lesson to be learned
I never did hear from our visitor's who speak Spanish. Either the translation wasn't too bad, or I'd created an International incident.

Using computer software to translate WEB pages, is an idea whose time has not yet come. It should be painfully obvious by now, that there are no shortcuts to publishing on the WEB.

WEB Translation software programs are designed to make WEB surfing a bit easier. They are not intended for publishing documents

Human intervention and knowledge is still a critical factor. If you don't know how to do something, don't try to fake it ... because, a rose by any other name might just be tuna.

Epilogue
A few hours later, I called Becky to tell her what happened. She said something about our G rating from RASCA being threatened. I couldn't tell whether she was laughing or crying when she fell off her chair. , and then she either said, " ... you tried" or " ... you're fired!" I couldn't tell which.

1 - 1995 figures

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