What to do with different languages?

alishadawnrobinson1

I'm doing the 'Canada—1921 Federal Census [MQKR-2GQ]' and some of these are in English and some are in French. If the record is in French should I index it in French (put what's written) or index it in English (translate what's written)?

I know the project instructions say "If you download a batch that is in a language you are uncomfortable indexing, simply return it for someone else to index, and download a new project" but I'm not sure EXACTLY what that means because I can read it, I just can't translate it. So what do I do?

maryellenstevensbarnes1

Definitely the names are all French so they would be typed exactly as you see them, using the International characters button in your toolbar; the other columns are almost all typed as a single letter or yes/no and the solely English-speaking researcher will easily grasp Canadian and French in either language; plus the reader can use English column headings to help determine anything pertinent to their research. Occupations would be a little more troublesome for me even after 3 years of French language study. I hesitate at voyageur because of the double entendre with younger generations 😉 I don't know if any of the above answers your question, but it seems to me that nowadays English is a second language almost world-wide so maybe that helps you decide what to do. More than that, a reviewer will look at every batch/page you index so I would go ahead and start indexing and if you run into a problem, you can always come back to the forum. Best Wishes

Julia Szent-Györgyi

I would assume that you'd fill out the fields in whatever language is on the image you got. Most projects on FS don't even want indexers to expand abbreviations, never mind translating anything. Also, languages do not correspond to each other one-to-one. If it says "baker" in English, and I want to write it in Hungarian, should I use pék ("bread-baker") or cukrász ("confectioner, sweets-baker")? Or, in the other direction, if it says asztalos, should I translate that as "carpenter", "joiner", or "cabinetmaker"? I'm sure French-to-English is rife with such ambiguities.

I just downloaded a batch from the project to check the instructions, and they're …inadequate. Every single example is purely in English, and none of the field helps mention French, either. (I'll be returning the batch momentarily, as it's in French [of course], which I do not know.)

alishadawnrobinson1

Thanks guys.