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Topic: Going Global (Read 18315 times) |
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megajester
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Istanbul, Turkey
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Going Global
« on: Jan 14th, 2011, 4:30pm » |
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I think it's great to see how arimaa.com has drawn a very international crowd. It's something we can be proud of as a community. However for Arimaa to achieve the heights I'm sure we all agree it deserves, I think we may need to think a bit more about how to cater for the non-English speaking world.
As a native English speaker myself, I would just like to add that I have absolute confidence in everybody's good intentions. Our community has succeeded in transcending national barriers, and I have never heard a word out of anyone that would suggest otherwise. The simple fact is, we are a small community that started in an English-speaking country. This situation was unavoidable. However as time goes by we could keep this topic in the back of our minds, to come up with practical, realistic ways to help bridge the gap.
Just to make my point, I made a graph of the distribution of nationalities in this year's WC:
We are international, this is true. But we are still overwhelmingly American.
It's even starker when you figure in the fact that the Australians and Canadians don't have to learn a foreign language either:
We are clearly not reaching our potential. If you look at the distribution of chess grandmasters, for instance...
(based on data from nationmaster.com)
Now you could say that there are lots of reasons for this. However I'm sure that a lot of it has to do with the language barrier. Granted that English is the undisputed lingua franca of the internet, and it will be for at least the rest of our lifetimes. People are put off from shogi because all the pieces have foreign characters written on them, even though there is an abundance of literature, web forums and game sites all in English, showing you how to play in English and pairing you with English-speaking opponents. In Arimaa's case we have the reverse. The rules are available on Wikipedia in many languages (this is a major achievement) and the pieces could not be simpler. But it stops there.
As I say, we are a small community and we can't do everything. But some practical, realistic suggestions could help bridge the gap.
For example, people could volunteer as "mentors" for users in certain languages. Just this evening I used the "Local Players" function to check out how many Turks have registered with the site, and sent them all a quick message asking them how they found the game and if they needed any help with the site. Those who wanted to volunteer could specify which languages they can speak well, and then during registration we could ask new users which language(s) they are most comfortable with.
For something a little more comprehensive: Would it be possible to set something up whereby anybody who wants to can translate the standard text lines from the game client, the gameroom etc. into their own language? People who wanted it could then select that language in their settings. Also we could perhaps help people to add closed captions on the "How to play Arimaa" video (I have some more detailed ideas on how to make this easier). That way somebody who just wanted to give the game a try could do so without needing any English.
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The_Jeh
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Arimaa player #634
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Re: Going Global
« Reply #1 on: Jan 14th, 2011, 5:37pm » |
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In the chat rooms at Arty Sandler's site, iggamecenter.com, there is an auto-translator that puts a small icon at the beginning of each chat message. Clicking this icon will instantly translate the message into whatever language the user has chosen. (Clicking again toggles the message back to the original.) I can't count all the times I have enjoyed the convenience of that feature. I don't know the details of its implementation, but most major languages are supported.
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| « Last Edit: Jan 14th, 2011, 5:40pm by The_Jeh » |
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rbarreira
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Re: Going Global
« Reply #2 on: Jan 14th, 2011, 5:58pm » |
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I would certainly be willing to translate the gameroom messages to Portuguese if Omar wants to get the gameroom localized.
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Eltripas
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Re: Going Global
« Reply #3 on: Jan 14th, 2011, 6:20pm » |
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on Jan 14th, 2011, 5:58pm, rbarreira wrote:| I would certainly be willing to translate the gameroom messages to Portuguese if Omar wants to get the gameroom localized. |
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Same here for Spanish
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megajester
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Istanbul, Turkey
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Re: Going Global
« Reply #4 on: Jan 14th, 2011, 7:05pm » |
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on Jan 14th, 2011, 5:37pm, The_Jeh wrote:| In the chat rooms at Arty Sandler's site, iggamecenter.com, there is an auto-translator that puts a small icon at the beginning of each chat message. Clicking this icon will instantly translate the message into whatever language the user has chosen. (Clicking again toggles the message back to the original.) I can't count all the times I have enjoyed the convenience of that feature. I don't know the details of its implementation, but most major languages are supported. |
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This sort of thing is indeed very useful and I think implementing that here could work very well. But as a professional translator I can't stress enough how important it is that any permanent text be translated or at the very least proofread by a human. Check out this article for a cautionary tale. It's fine for chat, but woefully inadequate for anything more permanent.
I had written some translation tips to go with the "Learn to play Arimaa" video. Have a read if you're interested.
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| « Last Edit: Jan 14th, 2011, 7:16pm by megajester » |
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megajester
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Istanbul, Turkey
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Re: Going Global
« Reply #5 on: Jan 19th, 2011, 5:34am » |
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Just a thought about how to internationalize the "How to play Arimaa" video that's on the arimaa.com homepage.
Initially we had wanted to redub the video in each language, but I seem to remember Eltripas having a go at the Spanish video only to get bogged down with the synchronization...
Youtube has a transcription function which automatically generates subtitles for a video. Although the resulting transcription is hilarious, it does spit out a file with the correct times. All you need to do is change the text for each subtitle...
So if I were to set up a page, a bit like my sample translation table at the bottom of this page, where all you have to do is write the translation in your language next to each line in English, how many people would be prepared to give it a go? That way I could very easily upload it to Youtube as closed captions for each language.
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Eltripas
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Re: Going Global
« Reply #6 on: Jan 19th, 2011, 6:33pm » |
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on Jan 19th, 2011, 5:34am, megajester wrote:
Initially we had wanted to redub the video in each language, but I seem to remember Eltripas having a go at the Spanish video only to get bogged down with the synchronization...
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Synchronization was an issue indeed but I finished the video and uploaded it to the ftp but I didn't made the titles I guess that's why is not posted in the youtube channel, I'm not sure if it has the quality to feature there even with the titles though.
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| « Last Edit: Jan 19th, 2011, 6:33pm by Eltripas » |
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arimaa_master
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Re: Going Global
« Reply #7 on: Jan 20th, 2011, 7:59am » |
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on Jan 19th, 2011, 5:34am, megajester wrote:
So if I were to set up a page, a bit like my sample translation table at the bottom of this page, where all you have to do is write the translation in your language next to each line in English, how many people would be prepared to give it a go? |
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You can count me in.
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| « Last Edit: Jan 20th, 2011, 8:00am by arimaa_master » |
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rbarreira
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Re: Going Global
« Reply #8 on: Jan 20th, 2011, 8:38am » |
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on Jan 20th, 2011, 7:59am, arimaa_master wrote:
Me too, but I don't guarantee I'll have time to do it in the next month.
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megajester
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Istanbul, Turkey
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Re: Going Global
« Reply #9 on: Jan 20th, 2011, 9:43am » |
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OK I will get such a page set up in the next couple of days. Thanks a lot guys!
@Eltripas, I hadn't realized you had uploaded it to the ftp. I'll check it and probably be uploading it in the next couple of days.
So that means we've got:
Spanish, by Eltripas
Czech, by arimaa_master, and
Portuguese, by rbarreira
Any more takers? All languages are needed but French, German and Russian would be particularly good languages to have.
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| « Last Edit: Jan 20th, 2011, 9:43am by megajester » |
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Eltripas
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Re: Going Global
« Reply #10 on: Jan 20th, 2011, 8:30pm » |
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on Jan 20th, 2011, 9:43am, megajester wrote:OK I will get such a page set up in the next couple of days. Thanks a lot guys!
@Eltripas, I hadn't realized you had uploaded it to the ftp. I'll check it and probably be uploading it in the next couple of days.
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Thanks, If you think that it doesn't have enough quality to feature it's ok, also I can put the video on the English titled video so at least has some titles, most people know enough English to understand those simple titles on screen.
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megajester
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Re: Going Global
« Reply #11 on: Jan 21st, 2011, 12:52pm » |
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on Jan 20th, 2011, 8:30pm, Eltripas wrote:
Thanks, If you think that it doesn't have enough quality to feature it's ok, also I can put the video on the English titled video so at least has some titles, most people know enough English to understand those simple titles on screen.
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Your video's excellent! It's true there is a little bit of a hiss on it, but I don't think it's so bad.
All I need now is a translation of the following so I can upload to Youtube
"Learn to play Arimaa" (or whatever you think would be a nice title in Spanish)
"The rules are simple and intuitive. Even if you've never learned how to play Chess, you can learn to play Arimaa in just five minutes. It can be played with a standard Chess set."
And then some keywords, such as the Spanish for: arimaa, rules, gaming, board, game, how, play, simple, intuitive, chess
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omar
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Re: Going Global
« Reply #12 on: Jan 21st, 2011, 2:40pm » |
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Wow, I didn't realize how dominant English was on our site. But I guess it makes sense; it does cater mostly to English speaking people. There is a 'Language' drop down on the main page which allows people to select other languages. It used to map to an automatic translator, but now I've mapped it to the Arimaa wiki page in other languages. Contributing to the Arimaa wiki page in other languages is also a good way to globalize Arimaa. We do get many referrers from Wikipedia, so I'm sure people are reading those pages.
Chrome seems to have language translation built into the browser. I've often been able to surf non-English sites with Chrome. I don't know if it translates from English to other languages though.
But translating the rules videos in other languages would be a great way to help more people learn it.
I've made a note to add a 'Preferred Language' option to the players profile page. This will require some changes in the database as well. I probably won't get to implementing it till after the events.
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megajester
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Istanbul, Turkey
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Re: Going Global
« Reply #13 on: Jan 22nd, 2011, 2:08am » |
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I think that judicious use of things such as Google Translate (that does translate from English into other languages, by the way) can be useful.
However before we run away with the idea that this will solve all our problems, I would just like to show you what happens when you take the German "Arimaa" page on Wikipedia and feed it through Google Translate.
Look how it explains pushing:
"A player can use two steps of a train to figure with an adjoining stronger own figure to drive an enemy. For example, sell its own dog, a rabbit or opposing an opponent's cat, but no dog, no horse, no camel, no elephants."
Believe me, it's no better the other way.
And this is German, a "cousin language" of English. It's appreciably worse even with French. And Google Translate in Turkish almost qualifies as a complete waste of time.
So as I said, machine translation will do for chat. Just about. But we would do well to get a human to at least proofread any permanent text. Or in the case of a draft prepared by Google Translate, start from scratch.
If we can't find the personnel from within the Arimaa community, I'm sure you could find some trainee translators who would be only too happy to put on their CV that they were "commissioned to translate the official website of Arimaa, a famous abstract strategy game."
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Eltripas
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Re: Going Global
« Reply #14 on: Jan 23rd, 2011, 6:51pm » |
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on Jan 21st, 2011, 12:52pm, megajester wrote:
Your video's excellent! It's true there is a little bit of a hiss on it, but I don't think it's so bad.
All I need now is a translation of the following so I can upload to Youtube
"Learn to play Arimaa" (or whatever you think would be a nice title in Spanish)
"The rules are simple and intuitive. Even if you've never learned how to play Chess, you can learn to play Arimaa in just five minutes. It can be played with a standard Chess set."
And then some keywords, such as the Spanish for: arimaa, rules, gaming, board, game, how, play, simple, intuitive, chess
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I've uploaded a new video now with titles (in English but it's better that way that with no titles at all, a lot of people can understand written English ), also here is what you asked:
“Learn to play Arimaa”
Aprende a jugar Arimaa
“The rules are simple and intuitive. Even if you've never learned how to play Chess, you can learn to play Arimaa in just five minutes. It can be played with a standard Chess set."
Las reglas son simples e intuitivas. Incluso si tú nunca has jugado Ajedrez, tú puedes aprender a jugar Arimaa en solo cinco minutos. Puede ser jugado con piezas y tablero de ajedrez comunes.
And then some keywords, such as the Spanish for: arimaa, rules, gaming, board, game, how, play, simple, intuitive, chess
Arrima, reglas, tablero, juego, cómo, jugar, simple, intuitivo, Ajedrez, juegos de mesa.
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