Using Doulingo 'Immersion' feature to translate HPMOR

post by efim · 2014-12-25T20:25:49.599Z · LW · GW · Legacy · 3 comments

Contents

3 comments

I have been using (alongside other learning tools) Duolingo for more than a year now and with considerable success in learning Spanish language.

I used immersion for learning purposes, but just recently it dawned on me that I could use it to translate HPMOR into different languages while simultaneously promoting it in wide audience.

My first attempt was uploading first untranslated chapter (on hpmor.com listed Spanish translation up to 24th chapter). 

Half of it got translated before the upload drowned in new more recent uploads from other people.

First idea was to get 'commercial' license to keep uploaded chapter on top, but right now i'll try to break chapters into smaller chunks, since uploads up to 500 - 700 sentences get fully translated.

Because Doulingo for free lets you upload only web-pages I will gather english chunks in a vk.com group (google docs can't be uploaded to Duolingo).

I am posting this to make public commitment to continue to post chunks of untranslated chapters of HPMOR to Duolingo and get roughly translated texts out of it.

Even though Doulingo translations usually are quite good I suspect that there got to be some kind of checking.

What could be the solution? Could we organize e-mail broadcast for native Spanish speakers in LW to read and check translated chunks? They could be stored on google docs and be available for correction.

And also if\when I succeed in translation of a full chapter of HPMOR into spanish, how could it be added to hpmor site? 

 

[edit to add links]

vk group with english and spanish chunks:https://vk.com/hpmor_en_to_sp_by_duolingo

latest duolingo chunk (ch.25 part 2): https://www.duolingo.com/translation/b665ba41aa75970134b14adb81de9fcf

first duolingo chunk (ch.25 full): https://www.duolingo.com/translation/7921153db4ef97a13e5c308151d0f8ae

 

P.S this project might not work, if Duo users won't find content interesting enough.

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comment by Pablo (Pablo_Stafforini) · 2014-12-27T01:09:52.454Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I'm a native Spanish speaker and am happy to proof-read some sample translations.

I noted the potential of Duolingo for translating EA writings on the Facebook 'Effective Altruists' group a while ago, but no one suggested any specific essay or blog post. How is your project progressing?

Replies from: efim
↑ comment by efim · 2014-12-29T06:37:19.454Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

As it turnes out Rhaidot (https://www.fanfiction.net/u/4928277/Rhaidot) continues his work on Spanish translation. I contacted him on fanfiction.net and right now to assess usefulness of Duo translation we will look at result on Chapter 31 (https://www.duolingo.com/translation/9bdbcdf84aee1f89e3b7ba2c35065a79) From my experience of translation having bulk of text translated even if in medium quality is of great help.

I do not know yet which tools he uses, so maybe as he works right now it will be hard to work together. If you still want to help with proof-reading I would recommend to contact him directly.

Replies from: Pablo_Stafforini
↑ comment by Pablo (Pablo_Stafforini) · 2014-12-30T00:52:05.441Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Thanks. I took a quick look at the Chapter 31 translation and I regret to say that the quality is not very good. It might be that the document is still at an early stage, and might improve significantly as more translators proof-check it. Currently it looks roughly like a Google Translate translation.

I'll contact Rhaidot later today.

By the way, I hope you are feeling better. :-)