Making indexing project instructions available in both the record's language and English

LegacyUser

David Larry Benson said: We have been encouraged to do more foreign language indexing, so I have done this now a couple of times in Dutch. The main problem I had was trying to read the project instructions, because everything was in Dutch. I have studied Dutch in the past, as well as several other languages, so I know many basic things, however, the more technical words of indexing are more difficult. (That is not everyday conversation language). It took a long time just to go through the project instructions by copying each paragraph into Google Translate. Once I understood the instructions, it was much easier to just learn a few words, such as place of death, baptism, etc. that I could find in each record.

In the project instructions, they always have those links you can go to for an example of a document you might see in that batch. In those instructions on the right hand side, they are written in the other language as well as English in parentheses.

Is there a way to give project instructions for languages other than English, in English? Maybe two tabs or buttons you can click on, one to read the instructions in English and the other for the other language? I know I would do a lot more with other languages if I didn't have to spend so much time translating the instructions. Just a thought.

LegacyUser

A van Helsdingen said: There is nothing special about English compared to other languages. Maybe it is true that it is the most commonly spoken language of FS users, but Spanish and other languages will also be common. Translating every project's instructions into accurate English would be a waste of resources, considering that Google Translate and other translators have become quite good, even if not perfect and still with some grammatical errors.

LegacyUser

Jordi Kloosterboer said: Good idea, but yeah, the resources could be spent elsewhere. This is what I usually do (because my primary language is English):

LegacyUser

Slotbuddy said: I think Mr. Benson's suggestion is a good one. If support has a lot of projects that can't get completed because there are not enough indexers/reviewers who speak the language, then maybe this would get them done. You are all correct that it will take a lot of time for them to do, so possibly they would have to decide which project needs the most help and try it on that one first and see how it works. You'll never know if you don't at least try. If it works for that one, then support could try another. If it is only one project every 2 years, at least it would be an improvement.

LegacyUser

Juli said: I think part of the thinking is that if you don't speak the language well enough to understand the instructions in it, then maybe you don't speak the language well enough to do any indexing in it.

That said, the Hungarian indexing projects have always had instructions in English, and in fact the Hungarian instructions have shown every sign of being translated from English.

LegacyUser

Adrian Bruce said: Whether it was intentional thinking or not, this forum has identified numerous cases where stuff is badly indexed because the indexer has not been able to understand the text. And given the messes that have been made of names, I am loth to agree that a messed up index is better than none.

At least the ability to use Google Translate shows a degree of intelligence and willingness....

LegacyUser

Slotbuddy said: While we do have indexers who have trouble understanding the instructions, the projects that would be converted from one language to English could be marked for advanced and that would help make it clear that it was for people who were more familiar with indexing.

You are bringing up another topic altogether when you refer to the poor indexing. We have all tried to do more to correct it, but support will not agree to allow indexers to see the results of the reviews. If they never see what they are doing wrong, how can you expect them to correct their mistakes? We have tried for years to have some type of communication between indexers and reviewers or arbitrators as they used to be called but it falls on deaf ears.

LegacyUser

MaureenE said: Other posts have said for indexing matters you need to post on the Indexing Chat Group in the "Community.FamilySearch" Forum, see a link provided by Brett on
https://getsatisfaction.com/familysea...

LegacyUser

David Larry Benson said: I guess maybe another question is, were the project instructions originally written in the other language--and only written in that language--or where they written in English initially and then translated into the other language? If the latter is the case, then the English version should already exist and could then easily be incorporated with very little extra work.

Thanks for all the thoughts. There are several good points. Because other languages are so far behind English indexing, it really would help to do what we can to make it easier for all to index other languages, even with limited language skills. I have done enough indexing to feel pretty comfortable with accuracy after learning the basic words for the particular records I am indexing. I think many people would be able to do the same. There are a lot of returned missionaries out there who may not be completely fluent anymore, but know or can easily learn enough to be a valuable asset in indexing other languages.