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From: erik@kroete2.freinet.de (Erik Corry)
Subject: Re: Single European Language
Keywords: translation text book natural science
Followup-To: uk.politics,alt.politics.ec,sci.lang,talk.politics.european-union
References: <3rt4nj$38e@blackrabbit.cs.uoregon.edu> <DAAn2L.DCt@cwi.nl> <3ruscm$bsg@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk> <DACF9t.Jxu@cwi.nl> <3s1ur4$66o@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk>
Organization: Home (Freiburg)
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 1995 02:56:35 GMT
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Message-ID: <DAI5IB.nL@kroete2.freinet.de>
Summary: Translating natural science textbooks cuts you off from the world
Lines: 73

Edmund Grimley-Evans (etg10@cl.cam.ac.uk) wrote:
: > > If a text is to be produced in at least a few thousand copies then
: > > translation costs are not really significant compared with printing
: > > costs. Looks to me as if the Dutch authorities just don't care.
: > 
: > You think the Dutch authorities should go into the publishing business?
: > Or what?  But you overstate the number of copies.  In many cases textbooks
: > are resold amongst students so a few hundred would be closer to the mark
: > in those cases.

: Are you claiming that translation costs become insignificant compared
: with printing costs for only a few hundred copies, or are you claiming
: that no text book in Dutch could be sold in more than a few hundred
: copies?

: Governments can and should support publishing that is important to
: education, because governments can and must support education.

But is it beneficial to students to translate the textbooks into
their language. I think it isn't. The selection of mathematics
books translated into a small language like Danish or Dutch is
never going to be as big as that available in English. The fact
is that the languages of Mathematics are English and perhaps
Russian.

If Dutch mathematicians at University level do not work in
English, then they will miss out on the newest and most exciting
texts and they will also be unable to contribute anything
themselves to the international mathematics community.  A dynamic
exchange of ideas is not possible if there is a tranlation
barrier between the two academic communities.  In this case, the
smaller community will lose out more.

I heard that in the Netherlands you need special permission to
write a natural science PhD in Dutch. I think it is similarly
frowned on not to use English in Denmark at this level. If it's
good enough for a PhD, then it should be worth letting the rest
of the world know about it.

Tranlating advanced textbooks is a very difficult job. Anybody
capable of doing it right is probably capable of doing their own
original work, and is wasting their time translating. A poor
translation is worse than nothing at all.

Another factor is that every field invents its own vocabulary and
jargon.  This is an important factor in computing. It is very
difficult to coordinate the translation of a phrase that has just
been invented. This is a problem in German computer literature,
where the same English word gets translated into different German
words by different translators. Combined with the inevitable
mistakes that creep in, I find I often have to translate back
into English in order to work out what was meant! There is a
standard Microsoft German wordlist, but it does not seem to be
universally used (and I seem to remember some of the words they
suggested being somewhat unwieldy).

It may grate that this state of affairs allows the Brits and
Americans to get away with being incredibly lazy about learning
languages. I am sure this is one of the reasons that native
speakers of English are often intolerant and unhelpful to those
learning English. However, if you expect all textbooks to be
translated, your field will inevitably become insular and lag
behind the rest of the world.

[ On a side note, Microsoft actually released a version of Basic
  in which the keywords had been translated into German. I'm not
  sure whether this made it impossible or just difficult to
  exchange programs with non-German-speakers. It has since been
  dropped. Of course, if you write your comments in German a
  similar effect is achieved. ]

-- 
Erik Corry, Freiburg, Germany, +49 761 406637 erik@kroete2.freinet.de
