Dear all,
Thanks to Chris for providing such clear and helpful recommendations.
I would like to add a request from the perspective of the translator.
Today I posted to the group a translation of Wilfried Nelles' article
(2080 words in the German original), which took me several hours
(over several days) to translate. I found the process very
stimulating, but it does take time.
Others have also translated or are in the process of translating
various contributions, some of which exceed 2000 words, which is the
average length of a feature article in many publications.
My appeal to all who are considering to write a piece that will need
to be translated: keep it short, please! The shorter and less complex
the easier it will be to find a translator who is able to put in the
required time.
A good guide for a manageable translation of a contribution to
ConstellationTalk would be between 500 and 1000 words.
Thanks for all the stimulating discussion strands from all different
parts of the world!
Kind regards
Soni Stecker
Ballarat, Australia
Language of this forum
Posted by: "Dr Chris Walsh" constellationflow@xxxxxxxxxxxx
constellationflow
Sat May 31, 2008 4:29 pm (PDT)
Dear all
The language of this forum is English. It is the one language
everyone here
shares. I acknowledge it is not everyone's first language. If we to have
parallel conversations in everyone's first language many languages other
than German would be represented. This is clearly unworkable. If I
summarise
what has happened recently:
Bertold Ulsamer submitted a piece asking for a translation.
Max commented on it without giving a translation.
Wilfried offered more in German which is still not translated.
Moreover we all know that the material concerned is highly sensitive but
most of us have no idea of the actual content.
It is great that more of the more experienced German facilitators are
joining this forum. They have valuable information experience and
accumulated wisdom to share. We want to make it as easy as possible
for them
to do so. At the same time we do not want to start a parallel
conversation
in German that most of us can't follow.
Therefore, as group moderator, I want to make the following
recommendations.
* I request the Germans to do their absolute best to get a translation
first and submit in English. If a piece in German is worth sharing
with the
group it is worth translating into English.
* I think the fact that this will slow things down is a good thing
considering the flood of emails in the last few days
* If no one is willing to translate then I think we should accept that
rather than risk a parallel conversation which excludes most of the
members
of this group.
* Above all anything submitted in German or any language other than
English should not be commented on until a full translation is made.
* If too many posts are made in other languages without being
translated then we may have to ban the practice all together. I do
not want
to do that as in the past Bertold and others have submitted valuable
pieces
in German which have generously been translated by other Ctalk members.
Hasta la vista
Chris Walsh
Melbourne
Australia
www.cwalsh.com.au
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