Firefox in 10 African language
Yes 10 African languages for Firefox. Officially there is 1 (one) African language (Afrikaans) in Firefox, not counting languages of wider communication like English, French, Portuguese and Arabic. ANLoc (The African Network for Localisation) is trying to change that literally from A-Z, Akan to Zulu. With of course Northern Sotho, Shona, Krio, Wolof, Songhai, Swahili, Lingala and Luganda in between.
ANLoc is working through the following process to try to create the skills and support needed to get more Africans localising Firefox:
- We asked Africans to submit a proposal on why we should support their language team. We selected the 10 best proposals from those that we received.
- A tech team was created with people skilled in development and localisation. The idea is for this group to support less skilled localisation teams and also to grow the skills within this group. The tech team is spread across Africa. They are doing things like managing files, building language packs, helping give input to localisers and in the longer term helping the new teams interface with Mozilla so that they can grow their own wings and fly.
- Hosting the teams on Pootle a web server for managing software localisation. We've put all the localisation files on Pootle to help track progress and assist teams that are less technical. Those with bad connectivity, a common issue in Africa, can download the files, translate offline and then submit their work through Pootle.
- Working with the teams to help promote their work in the own country.
Why Firefox? It's a widely known product, it's used by end-users (the people who need local language) and it's a product produced by an organisation that is passionate about championing the open web. Mozilla has done more for the WWW then most, ANLoc is standing on the shoulders of giants. Thank you Mozilla.
How can I help? Here are a few ideas:
- Download and test a language pack, especially if you speak one of the 10 languages.
- Speak French? You can really help some of the localisers who are from French speaking Africa trying to localise into their own language
- Tell others about this effort, especially if you have some connection to the language listed. You are in the diaspora, you speak the langauge, you come form a country that speaks the language.
ANLoc is a network of passionate language experts funded by the International Development Research Centre.
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You should make sure that
You should make sure that those translations are top quality, on par with the English version. Of all the internet-using speakers of those languages, most likely there are very very few who actually *need* those translations, so you should make sure that the translations are good enough that using them won't be a disadvantage. I know I used to stick with the English version of many programs simply because the translations (often made by hobbyists or volunteers) were of low quality, inconsistent, confusing, and sometimes had mistakes.
Top quality translations
While I share your concern about making sure these translations are top quality, there are a few assumptions in your comments that I want to unpack:
1) Top quality translations. These are first time translations, in many cases no software has never been released in these languages. You cannot expect them to be perfect on their first release, in fact what is perfect for these languages? For some simple reasons; the terminology is in flux, the translators (many professional) have not yet translated software, the style is still being determined for the language. Software translation is an ongoing process, you mustn't confuse this with commercial localisation that will translate once and then leave the work no matter how many errors.
2) On par with the English - it might shock you to know that one of the things translators struggle with is poor English text. I'd prefer to strive for better then the English.
3) Most people don't need these translations - correct, but I'd add the word 'now'. Most people using the internet now will most certainly be added to by many monolingual speakers in the coming years. Think cellphones and government information kiosks. This raises an interesting counter point; People who don't need the translations are often the most critical, they find it hard to use anything but English or French simply because that's what they used first.
4) (Hidden assumption) You can't do anything to fix things. Simply wrong since you can! All of these teams are accessible and their translations are accessible. While you will just have to accept the translations you get in Windows, you have the power to make suggestions and corrections in these Firefox translations.
What are we doing to mitigate your concerns (since they are ours also)? A few things:
1) We focus the teams on the most important parts of the the translations, the human facing strings. This way they don't get tired translating strings that users will never see. But rather focus on the most important strings.
2) We make test build and encourage people, like you I would guess, to actually test them and give feedback.
3) We run a number of QA checks that can pick up misaligned terminology.
Its not perfect but that combined with people willing to provide feedback leads to better translations.