Wiki Life: How to translate your first article

Hello and welcome everybody to our Wednesday - Wiki Life post.

Today I want to continue on a topic I started a few weeks ago: How to write your first article. The last time we have seen how to write your first article on your own. Now I want to show you how you can easily translate an article into your mother tongue or into another language.

Step 1: Find an article to translate

This is not that easy like it sounds. The best one would be an article, which you have already written. If you have not written an article on your own yet choose a topic, which you are familiar with.

Why you should be familiar with this topic? Especially in a technology context it is important that you know how to translate a word/sentence. An example: Germans normally do not like English words in their language, so they try to translate every single word into German. What is the problem with that? Another example: In Germany we say 'handy' to a 'mobile phone'. Of course a mobile phone is handy, but in this context it has nothing to do with the word itself.

Step 2: Translate it

If you have found an article which you want to translate you have several options how you could do that. In this article I would like to concentrate only on two of them.

Option #1: Translate it on your own

If you are familiar with your destination language (or it is your mother tongue) and the topic, you could start translating the article on your own. Two hints from my side: Use the layout from the article you are translating. That makes it easier for people who are navigating from one article to the other. My second hint: Do not try to translate the article word by word. That makes it easier for you to not change the message of the article.

Option #2: Use the Microsoft Translator Widget

Another option is the Microsoft Translator Widget. A very good wiki article about it was written by Bruno Lewin - Microsoft Translator Widget and Wiki. Just follow this article.

Step 3: Mark it as a translated article

Alright, the translation is done. What next?

You should not forgot to mark your article as a translation of another article. Every step you need was written by Ed during the last translation battle in this blog post.

Step 4: Follow-up

Your first translated article is of course not the end of the journey. Choose another article and continue translating articles (and participate in the next translation battle of TNWiki)!

- German Ninja Jan (Twitter, Profile)