Details of the Translation Process
The MSHA web site is being translated through "machine translation" which means that it is translated dynamically (on-the-fly) through a third party service.
Benefits:
- This method allows for translation of the entire web site (over 13,000+ HTML pages) which would otherwise be impossible due to limited resources. It does not, however, allow for the translation of PDF files.
- Updates to content are processed when posted rather than delayed awaiting a human translation.
- Translations are handled uniformly -- rather than allowing for human interpretation -- one translator's choice may not be the same as another's. Many different Spanish dialects exist and a perfect translation is almost impossible -- this allows us to begin at the same point and improve as we can.
- We do have the ability to create supplemental dictionaries -- such as proper names, mining terms, job titles and idiomatic expressions. These dictionaries are applied in addition to the ones used by the translation site.
- The software can also be told when a word or phrase should NOT be translated -- leaving it as English if that is the most appropriate solution.
Issues:
- Machine translation is not perfect and may create some poor translations (which can be corrected).
- We are limited in what we can affect on the entire site -- we can enter individual words or phrases -- but not entire paragraphs or pages. We can decide to translate an entire page and simply have the software ignore a page as well if necessary -- but this would require human translation and review.
Corrections/Suggestions (Of the Constructive Variety):
- If you see a term or phrase that you think may be incorrect -- and you have a suggested translation, you may send an e-mail to
MSHA's Spanish Web Site effort.
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