Web Internationalization
Purpose
Prototype and test an automatic translation program to enable Spanish-speaking students to chat in real-time with English-speaking students
Source 2004 Abstract
Web internationalization by Valerie Hagen
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ed Gellenbeck, Computer Science
The use of software tools to automatically translate languages is becoming increasingly popular. The software tools can be used to translate Web pages or dialogs.
This research project explores the effectiveness of automated language translators on the Web. Background research included investigating the current available software tools for translating Web pages and instant messaging.
I researched the effectiveness of automated translation through an experiment. I created a task for two students communicating on the Web to complete. Volunteers were recruited and divided into two groups: a control group and an experimental group. Students in the groups were paired up into teams of two.
Teams were given a task to complete using the Web and AOL Instant Messenger. Both members of the control group spoke in the same language. In the experimental group, one member spoke in Spanish while the other spoke in English. Software to perform automated language translation was used to translate the dialog.
The results are currently being compiled. Summary statistics will be presented at SOURCE.
Automated Translators
Automated translators will translate text that a user enters in from one language to another. Here is a list of some free sites, along with their translations of "Hello, how are you?", from English to Spanish:
- Babble Fish "¿Hola,cómo es usted?"
- Free Translation "¿Hola, cómo usted es?"
- Systransoft "¿Hola, cómo es usted?"
All three translations are close, but not exactly correct. The correct translation would be "¿Hola, cómo esta?" or "¿Hola, cómo estas?" depending on who you are speaking to.
Background Information
Web internationalization can be approached in two major ways:
- Globalization: meeting the needs of many cultures
- Localization: one application to meet the needs of many cultures
Two main issues with the internationalization of the Web are (1) displaying the correct format to allow the target audience to understand the content and (2) considering the target audience's culture, to avoid offending the audience.
Some of the formatting issues include
- Date
- Time
- Currency
Some of the cultural issues include
- Appropriate color usage
- Appropriate icon usage
Three ways to globalize:
- Redirect the user to a separate site based on culture detection.
- At run time, create the application's code using format specific content.
- At run time, detect user's culture and load strings from assembly.