WEBVTT 00:00:03.591 --> 00:00:10.734 (S. Kuo) Hello everyone and welcome to the GTC's first kick-off hangout on air event. 00:00:11.513 --> 00:00:16.147 We're so excited in having [you] join us and to answer your questions live 00:00:16.722 --> 00:00:19.963 I am Sébastien, you may have received an email from me 00:00:20.147 --> 00:00:23.630 I am the program manager for localization here at Coursera 00:00:23.953 --> 00:00:28.768 And I am joined by Eli over here, on your right, 00:00:28.768 --> 00:00:32.124 who is Product Manager for International Growth, 00:00:32.125 --> 00:00:37.895 as well as Daphne, our illustrious co-founder and President of Coursera. 00:00:38.700 --> 00:00:42.277 First off, I want to thank our volunteers. 00:00:43.267 --> 00:00:46.536 In just a short two and half weeks since we launched the program, 00:00:46.538 --> 00:00:52.524 we've had over (check) 25'000 people who joined across a variety of languages. 00:00:52.524 --> 00:00:56.003 The response has been overwhelming and truly impressive 00:00:56.420 --> 00:01:01.496 and I am impressed everyday by the dedication 00:01:01.496 --> 00:01:05.496 that the Coursera community is showing towards this translation's program. 00:01:06.145 --> 00:01:10.628 In that short time, we've already had nine courses translated 00:01:11.039 --> 00:01:16.280 70% or more towards completion, which represents over a milion words. 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:22.304 So I want to thank you again and again for your tireless effort and hard work. 00:01:23.110 --> 00:01:25.241 So, the structure of today's event: 00:01:26.104 --> 00:01:29.451 We'll begin with Daphne giving us a brief welcome 00:01:29.455 --> 00:01:33.554 and answering any questions that you may have about Coursera 00:01:33.554 --> 00:01:35.681 and our international growth strategy. 00:01:35.951 --> 00:01:42.311 Following that, Eli and I will be happy to take questions about the GTC 00:01:42.311 --> 00:01:47.910 ............. (check) or any other thing that may have to do with your daily interaction (check) 00:01:47.910 --> 00:01:50.661 feedback about the translation's program. 00:01:51.362 --> 00:01:54.772 In order to ask questions through Google Hangouts on Air, 00:01:55.383 --> 00:02:00.118 you'll notice a section on the right that has a 'Ask a question' button. 00:02:00.390 --> 00:02:04.647 So if you click on that, it'll allow you to type in your question into the text box 00:02:04.647 --> 00:02:07.312 and when you're ready to send it, click 'Submit'. 00:02:07.312 --> 00:02:11.644 Eli will be fielding and moderating the questions as they come through. 00:02:12.249 --> 00:02:15.339 So, without much further ado, Daphne, 00:02:15.357 --> 00:02:18.499 would you like to say something, say hello? 00:02:19.272 --> 00:33:34.061 (D. Koller) 2:19 -> 33:34 00:33:34.061 --> 00:33:38.572 (Eli Bindner) Great, thanks so much, Daphne, and then again, just to remind everyone here, 00:33:38.573 --> 00:33:45.424 so now I will spend some time talking more specifically about the GTC and we'll let you get on with your day 00:33:45.424 --> 00:33:47.745 But thanks again for having been with us. (Koller) Thank you. - Thank you 00:33:49.807 --> 00:33:54.781 (Bindner) Just a reminder: if you see questions that are being asked on the ...... (check 33:50) 00:33:54.781 --> 00:33:58.982 and that you're really in ........ (check) boost them up so they come to our attention. 00:34:00.180 --> 00:34:06.075 And - let's take a quick look at kind of questions have been asked already. 00:34:06.075 --> 00:34:10.669 So, I see that there is a great question here about translation quality. 00:34:10.669 --> 00:34:17.787 Sébastien, do you want to talk a little about what we're thinking about ensuring translation quality in the GTC 00:34:17.787 --> 00:34:19.398 and what kind of procedure ...... (check) on place? 00:34:19.398 --> 00:34:30.084 (Kuo) Sure. So, the way we tried to continually up quality of the translations from GTC 00:34:30.084 --> 00:34:37.394 is to have sort of a tutoring system for, you know, as individual like volunteers (check) 00:34:37.394 --> 00:34:44.393 we rely on you just sort of submit the translations and let us know what you think would be the best translation 00:34:44.393 --> 00:34:52.440 but obviously, there is a lot of range of opinions and a lot of different ways you can translate something. 00:34:52.440 --> 00:34:59.350 And so, I think it's always important to have at least one person per language 00:34:59.350 --> 00:35:04.398 to sort of be that voice and have the final say in deciding, 00:35:04.398 --> 00:35:09.008 this is how we want to present translations of our content in this language. 00:35:09.008 --> 00:35:14.450 And so, in this capacity, we have a specific role, known as the language coordinator. 00:35:14.988 --> 00:35:17.408 Not all languages have this at the moment. 00:35:17.703 --> 00:35:26.493 As we scale up the program and learn from the particular needs of each community, 00:35:26.876 --> 00:35:32.456 we intend to fill those spots where we can, strategically 00:35:32.843 --> 00:35:39.126 and give that person the responsibility of deciding the directions of translation for the language 00:35:39.126 --> 00:35:45.364 but also having the daily task of reviewing translations on Transifex, 00:35:45.364 --> 00:35:49.149 to make sure that everything is always correct, 00:35:49.149 --> 00:35:53.370 but also in line with what they sort of are wanting to project, 00:35:53.370 --> 00:35:58.353 like when we have that translated content shown to our international users. (35:56) 00:35:59.009 --> 00:36:00.634 (Bindner) Thanks, Sébastien. 00:36:00.985 --> 00:36:02.130 I wanted to talk a little bit 00:36:02.130 --> 00:36:07.192 -- there's a question here from .... (check) about when language coordinators will be chosen. 00:36:07.458 --> 00:36:17.692 So, as Sébastien mentioned, ....... (check) is being totally thrilled and overwhelmed, frankly, with response to the GTC 00:36:17.692 --> 00:36:19.832 and are really grateful to everyone. 00:36:19.849 --> 00:36:25.223 Part of the challenge for us, now, is that we're a tiny team here ...... (check 36:23) 00:36:25.223 --> 00:36:32.737 and we're trying to help kind of enable this program and channel the great work that everyone here is doing. 00:36:32.737 --> 00:36:36.848 So, as part of that, we're working a little bit more slowly than I think we would have liked. 00:36:37.403 --> 00:36:44.607 But as a first step, we really wanted to bring everyone onto this internal translation portal, these GTC Headquarters, 00:36:44.607 --> 00:36:48.552 and also give everyone the ability to just kind of jump into things. 00:36:48.871 --> 00:36:51.502 And as Sébastien mentioned, we sort of have this tutorate system 00:36:51.502 --> 00:36:54.504 where we work with partners in certain languages 00:36:54.504 --> 00:36:57.204 and then, for other languages where we don't have partners yet, 00:36:57.204 --> 00:37:01.778 although youknow, we very well might in the future, it's a little bit more unstructured now. 00:37:01.778 --> 00:37:06.831 But part of the structure that we will be building into these currently unpartnered languages 00:37:06.831 --> 00:37:08.682 is by bringing in language partners 00:37:08.682 --> 00:37:15.145 So we've been thrilled to see a lot of interest from people all around in serving as language coordinators. 00:37:15.145 --> 00:37:19.610 And over the next week or two, we'll be looking through those applications 00:37:19.610 --> 00:37:22.552 and working out procedures to ...... (check) language coordinators. 00:37:22.552 --> 00:37:25.852 An idea is that right now, things are very unstructured. 00:37:25.858 --> 00:37:29.678 If you -- you know, you just have a list of courses, you can jump in and translate, 00:37:29.678 --> 00:37:33.437 there's no one for unpartnered languages to really review 00:37:33.850 --> 00:37:38.060 but the idea is that we'll be building out a lot more structure around that 00:37:38.077 --> 00:37:40.052 and we think that structure is really effective, 00:37:40.052 --> 00:37:45.152 - we've seen it be really effective in our Portuguese and Chinese language communities 00:37:45.152 --> 00:37:51.854 that work on this team model, where there are team leaders and they help recruit a team 00:37:51.869 --> 00:37:55.902 and then at the end, when the course is finished, the team leaders help review the content 00:37:55.902 --> 00:37:58.289 and then you can ensure really high-quality translation, 00:37:58.289 --> 00:38:02.421 while also creating a really good experience for everyone participating. 00:38:02.623 --> 00:38:05.475 So, that's one model that's worked really well 00:38:05.475 --> 00:38:11.165 and we hope to bring some of that into our currently unpartnered languages too. 00:38:11.172 --> 00:38:16.180 So again, thank you for your patience in these initital days and couple of weeks 00:38:16.180 --> 00:38:22.453 and over the next week (check) we'll be digging much more into the currently unpartnered languages 00:38:22.453 --> 00:38:26.774 to help create a more structured and smoother experience around those. 00:38:26.794 --> 00:38:29.619 Amazingly -- this is a final note and sorry to talk so much -- 00:38:30.929 --> 00:38:33.564 you know, we've been totally overwhelmed by how 00:38:33.575 --> 00:38:37.737 -- even for these languages where there hasn't been a lot of structure -- 00:38:37.737 --> 00:38:43.146 how busy ....... (check) and how a lot of you are creating structure in the absence of structure. 00:38:43.813 --> 00:38:46.108 So, really, really impressed and grateful for that, 00:38:46.108 --> 00:38:49.646 and we're hoping to help a little bit more on our end over the next .... weeks (38:50) 00:38:50.055 --> 00:38:56.690 (Kuo) Yes, and I also want to mention that, you know, as we sort of are getting over this, sic, initial 00:38:56.690 --> 00:39:02.848 -- I guess I'll catch up in trying to get everyone into the community and get started -- 00:39:04.143 --> 00:39:07.717 we're freeing up more time to sort of engage with you directly. 00:39:08.135 --> 00:39:16.012 I think it's, you know, I think the beauty of -- ....... (check) like you said, Eli -- of crowdsourcing 00:39:16.012 --> 00:39:20.401 is the fact that, like, we all have different skills and different interests 00:39:20.404 --> 00:39:25.616 and, you know, different amounts of time that we're able to contribute. 00:39:25.618 --> 00:39:30.504 And, you know, [to match check], I look at it as our job to figure out 00:39:31.157 --> 00:39:34.873 how to best enable everyone to work the way that they want to work together, 00:39:35.194 --> 00:39:36.982 and complement those skills. 00:39:36.982 --> 00:39:41.799 So, that's sort of the philosophy behind the way that we are approaching 00:39:42.486 --> 00:39:44.813 building up this structure of the translations programs. 00:39:44.813 --> 00:39:48.479 The other aspect, though, is community, 00:39:48.496 --> 00:39:51.346 which I feel like is the primary focus. 00:39:51.823 --> 00:39:56.186 And, you know, as we have more bandwidth (check) to sort of personally engage with you, 00:39:57.599 --> 00:40:03.477 either through forums or emails, you know, I can see this consistently like 00:40:04.279 --> 00:40:07.785 this is a learning experience for a lot of us, you know, 00:40:07.785 --> 00:40:12.633 and you know, I -- as the people on the ground, like I want to hear, you know, 00:40:12.633 --> 00:40:15.076 your feedback and your ideas, you know, 00:40:15.076 --> 00:40:17.779 like Eli mentioned that some people are creating structures on their own 00:40:18.115 --> 00:40:24.105 and that is stuff that should be shared with us, you know, so that we can, you know, learn from 00:40:24.105 --> 00:40:29.002 how you guys best work and what we can promote to other people 00:40:29.285 --> 00:40:35.017 and evolve, so that we take the best of what's happening within the community 00:40:35.497 --> 00:40:37.641 and make the entire community better. 00:40:38.556 --> 00:40:43.709 (Bindner) Thanks, Sébastien. There's a question here, asked from Luis (check) - thank you Luis. 00:40:43.960 --> 00:40:47.046 "Are you going to offer some capacitation for translators?" 00:40:47.647 --> 00:40:52.137 I'm not -- I hope I'm answering this as you intended but I think the question is, 00:40:52.137 --> 00:41:00.165 "What kind of recognition does Coursera provide for people that are participating in this program?" 00:41:00.575 --> 00:41:07.888 And as we tried to mention in different areas in the forums and emails, 00:41:08.288 --> 00:41:12.007 we really want to recognize the amazing work that's going on in the community 00:41:12.007 --> 00:41:14.162 and so we're doing a number of things for that. 00:41:14.162 --> 00:41:20.136 So one is, once you translate, once a member of the GTC translates a certain threshold, 00:41:20.136 --> 00:41:24.955 a certain amount of content, they will be recognized on our public site 00:41:24.955 --> 00:41:30.837 and we think that this is hopefully a nice way to recognize people putting in time and energy 00:41:30.837 --> 00:41:38.334 by recognizing them on our public site on coursera.org/about/meetourtranslators 00:41:39.103 --> 00:41:44.343 -- I think that's the URL but we'll make sure that it's clear in our GTC headquarters -- 00:41:44.590 --> 00:41:45.764 and that's one way. 00:41:45.969 --> 00:41:49.508 Another way is by offering certificates. 00:41:49.508 --> 00:41:55.123 I know there is another question about, will Coursera have some formal recognition for translators, 00:41:55.123 --> 00:41:58.661 and so, for translators who have participated at a certain level, 00:41:59.647 --> 00:42:03.887 you'll receive a statement of accomplishment, just like one from a course, 00:42:04.332 --> 00:42:07.747 and that's something that we're also open to ............ (check) including, 00:42:07.747 --> 00:42:13.255 but as a start, that's just one form of recognition that we want to give, for 00:42:13.713 --> 00:42:17.112 -- you know, we -- once we have a little bit more structure, 00:42:17.112 --> 00:42:19.465 particularly for languages that are currently unpartnered, 00:42:19.465 --> 00:42:22.574 it'll be easier for us to introduce some of these reward systems 00:42:22.575 --> 00:42:27.581 so one thing that we're doing both in the Chinese and Portuguese communities now, 00:42:27.581 --> 00:42:32.385 where we do have a little bit more structure, is that we are offering team leaders, 00:42:32.385 --> 00:42:36.588 so, people who are ...... (check) effort and pouring a lot of energy into translation, 00:42:37.470 --> 00:42:40.717 get a free signature track, and that's something that will continue 00:42:40.990 --> 00:42:43.860 and then we want to do all sorts of small things too. 00:42:43.860 --> 00:42:49.676 I'm sure I'm missing things, l -- let's have a peak on our Global Translator Community Headquarters 00:42:49.676 --> 00:42:53.606 and go through this stuff in detail, so I recommend .... (check) check that out 00:42:54.134 --> 00:42:57.336 But we want to do lots of small things too, for instance this sort of hangout, 00:42:57.336 --> 00:43:02.372 which is only open to you GTC members, other special events, you know, 00:43:02.372 --> 00:43:06.381 one thing -- things we've done in the past, are bringing in professors of courses 00:43:06.381 --> 00:43:08.622 to do hangouts on air like this, 00:43:09.381 --> 00:43:15.204 facilitating regional meetups of translators, maybe providing some, you know, financial support 00:43:15.500 --> 00:43:17.985 to make those kinds of regional meetups possible. 00:43:17.985 --> 00:43:24.038 And I think there are tons of ways that we can help recognize the work that is going on in the community. 00:43:25.627 --> 00:43:27.939 And I think at the end of the day, Sébastien 00:43:27.939 --> 00:43:32.774 -- ............ (check) community supportive of the people who are involved in it -- 00:43:32.774 --> 00:43:38.533 so, this is really important to us and we really, we welcome your feedback and any ideas that you have. 00:43:38.533 --> 00:43:40.396 So hopefully, that answers your question, Luis, 00:43:40.411 --> 00:43:42.180 and I know that lots of other people are interested in that as well. 00:43:46.793 --> 00:43:49.027 Let's take a look at some of these other questions here. 00:43:49.050 --> 00:43:53.531 So, there's a good question about choosing courses. 00:43:53.531 --> 00:43:56.907 Sébastien, do you want to talk a little bit about how, you know, 00:43:56.907 --> 00:44:02.718 how we might allow volunteers to help choose the courses that we're working on? 00:44:03.645 --> 00:44:06.776 (Sébastien) Errh, totally. So just some background about 00:44:07.311 --> 00:44:12.748 -- some insight into how we choose the courses that we currently translate, 00:44:12.879 --> 00:44:16.192 because I realize that's, like, a little bit "black box" at the moment. 00:44:17.128 --> 00:44:23.258 We work with either partners in different countries, like you already mentioned, 00:44:23.624 --> 00:44:31.113 or using analytics data to just sort of understand the needs of various populations 00:44:31.521 --> 00:44:34.165 and determine the appropriateness of courses 00:44:34.165 --> 00:44:40.331 and that's sort of like the primary driver of how we decide that we want to translate a course. 00:44:41.471 --> 00:44:44.996 And then, even before that happens, a lot of -- 00:44:46.212 --> 00:44:51.260 course instructors, you know, they are ultimately the ones that can -- 00:44:51.788 --> 00:44:55.680 we work with course instructors to enable courses for tranlation, right? 00:44:55.858 --> 00:44:59.901 And so, in order to make sure that translation work is not, 00:45:01.272 --> 00:45:04.157 I don't (check) want to say, like, wasted, 00:45:04.502 --> 00:45:10.815 but we work with course instructors to make sure that their course content is stable, 00:45:11.035 --> 00:45:16.303 as in, like, it will be reused in the future and won't change significantly, 00:45:16.303 --> 00:45:19.739 so that, like, the translation work that you guys will put in 00:45:20.657 --> 00:45:28.651 won't be just eliminated if they just decide to change individual modules. 00:45:29.083 --> 00:45:33.739 And so, there's sort of a discussion process here about, like, 00:45:33.739 --> 00:45:36.917 selecting the courses and making sure that they are appropriate for translation. 00:45:37.643 --> 00:45:42.250 And then, to get to your specific question, I think that having a feedback module 00:45:42.250 --> 00:45:47.958 for community members to tell us what they want to see translated is really important 00:45:48.163 --> 00:45:53.923 and something that is on our, like, near-future road map. 00:45:54.229 --> 00:45:57.811 I don't know if it will be like a Google form, or something in the forums, 00:45:57.822 --> 00:46:04.272 but I think it's really important to collect that kind of -- those requests from people 00:46:04.282 --> 00:46:08.193 who actually are the people who would be most interested in taking those courses. 00:46:08.543 --> 00:46:14.146 And so, good idea, something we've already thought about and hope to implement soon. 00:46:15.070 --> 00:46:22.060 (Bindner) Thanks, Sébastien. A really fundamental and important question from Tasia. 00:46:22.565 --> 00:46:28.006 Tasia asks: "I'm not sure how to get started. Do we get assigned to a project or do we choose one? 00:46:28.006 --> 00:46:29.522 What should we do. Thanks." 00:46:29.522 --> 00:46:34.184 Thank you, Tasia. So, right -- so, basically, this is how it works: 00:46:34.184 --> 00:46:38.100 so, you're part of the GTC community, you're part -- 00:46:38.492 --> 00:46:44.898 you've access to this internal private translators' portal, the Global Translator Community Headquarters. 00:46:45.825 --> 00:46:49.934 And once you come on the Headquarters, there are different features for each language community. 00:46:50.415 --> 00:46:54.122 And the pages explain how to get started within that language community 00:46:54.122 --> 00:46:57.568 and each language community will be a little bit different. 00:46:58.032 --> 00:47:01.913 That's part of, you know, in designing the program we wanted maintain flexibility. 00:47:01.913 --> 00:47:05.194 So, for instance, if you want to join the Chinese language community 00:47:05.201 --> 00:47:06.335 if you're a Chinese speaker, 00:47:07.062 --> 00:47:10.751 we work with a partner, a wonderful partner, Guokr, in China 00:47:10.751 --> 00:47:16.040 and so, you go to the page and Guokr explains how to join the Guokr program. 00:47:17.065 --> 00:47:20.657 Our Portuguese community, which is managed by Tatiana, 00:47:20.657 --> 00:47:25.040 I don't know if Tatiana is here today, but thank you for all the amazing work you're doing, 00:47:25.040 --> 00:47:27.250 our friends of the Lemann Foundation in Brazil. 00:47:28.943 --> 00:47:30.836 This is a Brazilian Portuguese community. 00:47:31.615 --> 00:47:36.594 There is a page for that, you go to that page, and then you can apply to work on a particular program. 00:47:36.594 --> 00:47:38.863 So they work on a team-based model. 00:47:39.615 --> 00:47:45.030 Right now, as I mentioned before, besides Portuguese and Chinese and Russian 00:47:45.030 --> 00:47:47.551 -- I'm sorry, so Russian ..... our friends at ABBYY -- 00:47:48.486 --> 00:47:53.495 have a system where you go to a different platform outside Coursera 00:47:53.495 --> 00:47:57.807 and it's a kind of crowdsourcing model, so you can add a sentence, 00:47:57.807 --> 00:48:02.364 or upload or download existent translations, it's a really really wonderful platform 00:48:02.702 --> 00:48:05.974 and their page on the Coursera Translator Headquarters explains 00:48:05.974 --> 00:48:07.542 how to get started on that. 00:48:08.089 --> 00:48:11.528 So, if you're not from one of those communities right now, we have other pages, 00:48:11.762 --> 00:48:16.702 our page for Other Languages and Spanish, which is also currently still a little bit more "free for all" (check) 00:48:17.003 --> 00:48:22.049 and again, we'll be building in structure to that by this language coordinators mechanism. 00:48:22.049 --> 00:48:27.660 So once language coordinators come onboard, there'll be more structure in these communities as well. 00:48:27.660 --> 00:48:31.060 But for now, you should feel free to jump in to Transifex, 00:48:31.060 --> 00:48:35.665 which is our main translation platform, and just start working on translations. 00:48:36.007 --> 00:48:40.522 And we realize that there are going to be inconsistencies in the courses, 00:48:40.969 --> 00:48:43.580 that these courses need to be reviewed, 00:48:43.892 --> 00:48:48.673 but very quickly, we will get a language coordinator system moving, 00:48:48.890 --> 00:48:53.340 and a reviewer system in place and so, things will be better on that part. 00:48:53.994 --> 00:48:59.284 That's a summary of how you should get started translating. 00:48:59.829 --> 00:49:04.077 (Sébastien) And it's also worth mentioning that we've listed a few projects 00:49:04.077 --> 00:49:08.569 that represent some of those most popular courses on Coursera 00:49:08.569 --> 00:49:13.397 under that Other Languages tab, and so, even if you want, like, more -- 00:49:13.807 --> 00:49:20.014 if you just want to dive in and like, choose a course out of the vast number of courses 00:49:20.014 --> 00:49:23.664 that we are offering for translation, then that's also a good starting point. 00:49:24.477 --> 00:49:29.543 (Bindner) Thanks. There is a good question here about native language course transcripts. 00:49:29.867 --> 00:49:34.322 By the way, another housekeeping note: I see it's already 8:50 a.m. PST, 00:49:34.322 --> 00:49:37.021 so, Sébastien and I will chat for another 10 minutes. 00:49:37.482 --> 00:49:42.542 There are definitely questions we are not going to get to, but we'll go through the questions 00:49:42.543 --> 00:49:47.730 and we'll make sure that any questions that are, you know, that need to be answered, 00:49:47.730 --> 00:49:51.054 are answered in the discussion forums of the GTC portal. 00:49:51.695 --> 00:49:55.319 We'll do this again, I think it is a great mechanism for sharing information with our community 00:49:55.319 --> 00:49:57.191 Thanks again to everyone for being here. 00:49:57.204 --> 00:49:59.577 That said, let's take a couple more questions. 00:49:59.577 --> 00:50:01.705 So about the English language transcripts. 00:50:01.705 --> 00:50:05.825 So how it works right now is when a -- so Coursera is a platform. 00:50:05.838 --> 00:50:10.540 Our university partners use the platform and when they create content on the platform, 00:50:10.540 --> 00:50:15.891 when they add videos to the platform, they can request captioning, native-language captioning for those videos, 00:50:17.001 --> 00:50:20.603 When they request captioning, that goes to a company that we work with, 00:50:20.931 --> 00:50:23.668 that does human language-captioning of videos. 00:50:23.668 --> 00:50:27.380 So then people listen to the videos and actually, 00:50:27.699 --> 00:50:32.950 humans write out the words that are being spoken on the screens. 00:50:32.964 --> 00:50:37.552 Now, the people who are doing these captions, they are not subject-matter experts, 00:50:37.552 --> 00:50:40.911 so, for instance in the course on Machine Learning, you know, 00:50:40.911 --> 00:50:44.718 they're probably going to get some words wrong, there are going to be grammatical mistakes 00:50:45.003 --> 00:50:48.462 and, you know, one of the challenges that I realize, that we certainly realize is a challenge, 00:50:48.462 --> 00:50:50.581 is that English transcripts are not perfect. 00:50:50.845 --> 00:50:54.917 We think that they've improved a lot, we've worked with this provider that we use to improve that. 00:50:55.342 --> 00:50:59.544 I don't know if any, if actually some of you had been on the platform for a couple of years 00:50:59.544 --> 00:51:01.636 and saw the transcripts back in 2012, 00:51:01.636 --> 00:51:04.753 and maybe you can tell that they have gone better -- I hope so. 00:51:05.431 --> 00:51:07.937 But one thing that we'd really love to do in the future 00:51:07.938 --> 00:51:13.131 is that native English speakers participate in this translation program as well 00:51:13.131 --> 00:51:16.772 and work on correcting the English language transcription, 00:51:16.772 --> 00:51:18.724 verifying that as corrected (check). 00:51:19.268 --> 00:51:23.724 This is somewhat difficult technically and we don't really have an infrastructure for it 00:51:23.724 --> 00:51:26.127 -- infrastructure or a program for it right now, 00:51:26.370 --> 00:51:29.017 but I think it's a great idea, it's something that we'd love to do, 00:51:29.017 --> 00:51:36.410 because we realize that as Aurelia (check) says, it does make translation harder, 00:51:37.385 --> 00:51:40.580 because you have to consult the videos as you're going through the transcripts. 00:51:40.580 --> 00:51:44.434 So, thanks for the question. Definitely agreeing and would love to -- 00:51:44.438 --> 00:51:46.853 and we're planning on working on it in the future. 00:51:49.749 --> 00:51:52.103 Alright. Other questions. 00:51:56.505 --> 00:51:59.755 Sorry, looking through the great questions here. 00:52:00.296 --> 00:52:03.518 Sébastien, one for you: "Is there any Coursera-approved information 00:52:03.518 --> 00:52:09.856 on tech details of translating subtitles, such as, what is the longest line that would fit into a screen? 00:52:10.159 --> 00:52:16.157 Other kinds of technical details about using the platform, or maybe kind of translation best practices? 00:52:16.974 --> 00:52:25.882 (Kuo) Ehm, yeah, I mean, as like, I think I can, like, if you just follow sort of the -- 00:52:27.335 --> 00:52:31.463 like general translation best practices, they should cover almost any issues that you'll face. 00:52:31.463 --> 00:52:37.823 I think one will be working with something as, I want to say like a rigid format like subtitles, 00:52:38.820 --> 00:52:41.882 you know, there's not a whole lot of margin for errors. 00:52:41.882 --> 00:52:46.730 So the advice that I would give for translating is that, you know, 00:52:47.215 --> 00:52:54.153 first and foremost, like, you know, consider the semantic meaning of the text that you're translating. 00:52:54.525 --> 00:53:00.770 So, if you are in Transifex and you see the subtitles, you'll see that they're grouped by sort of lines, 00:53:00.770 --> 00:53:05.387 where it, like, the screen, the individual sentences that will come up at a time, 00:53:05.697 --> 00:53:08.605 and a lot of people sort of, like, fall into this trap of like, 00:53:08.605 --> 00:53:13.667 "Oh I need to, like, format my translations in, like, exact same line breaks" 00:53:13.667 --> 00:53:19.035 or like, where, like, the English sentence, like, starts on a new line 00:53:19.035 --> 00:53:26.472 and I would say, don't give yourself a headache like doing that, you know, 00:53:26.801 --> 00:53:31.769 I've seen like a lot of trans-- innovative (check) translators, like, 00:53:32.424 --> 00:53:36.389 take source text and translate it into for example Russian, 00:53:36.389 --> 00:53:40.728 and they will rearrange the sentences so it makes more sense in Russian. 00:53:40.728 --> 00:53:46.109 And so, feel free to do that if you feel, like, that is what is valuable for you as a native speaker. 00:53:47.417 --> 00:53:53.572 In terms of length, I would also try -- that's kind of the one concern I would advise for, 00:53:53.572 --> 00:53:57.495 like try to stick within, or under the length of the subtitles, 00:53:57.505 --> 00:54:02.471 because subtitles, if you go on too long, it can impact the readability 00:54:02.809 --> 00:54:06.381 and so, always err on sort of shorter translations 00:54:06.753 --> 00:54:12.902 and use the source text as your bar to measure against. 00:54:13.999 --> 00:54:17.806 And then, you know, as I've been sort of explaining through Transifex 00:54:17.806 --> 00:54:24.250 when people submit a translation, I try to keep a list of sort of these, like, issues where that came from, 00:54:24.574 --> 00:54:28.246 I haven't noticed very many so far, but if you do have questions, 00:54:28.972 --> 00:54:31.089 feel free to sort of write. 00:54:31.089 --> 00:54:37.407 I can even actually start a sort of, like a Translation Best Practices forum within our GTC, 00:54:37.407 --> 00:54:42.657 just keep that discussion going and collect your feedback and, you know, 00:54:42.659 --> 00:54:47.888 help you guys with sort of the daily questions you might have about the work that you do. 00:54:48.840 --> 00:54:53.550 (Bindner) Thanks, Sébastien. Another question here from Hunadahs 00:54:53.550 --> 00:54:56.115 about promoting courses. 00:54:56.115 --> 00:55:00.448 So, you know, the Translation Community translates a course, 00:55:00.449 --> 00:55:02.520 the course is now available in another language. 00:55:03.409 --> 00:55:04.726 a) how does this work? 00:55:04.726 --> 00:55:10.394 And b) how do you students on Coursera know that that course is now available in this other language? 00:55:11.787 --> 00:55:15.541 So, Sébastien, do you want to field that one, so how does, 00:55:15.544 --> 00:55:21.522 how do courses get from the translation platform to the Coursera class site? 00:55:21.522 --> 00:55:26.563 And then, how do students on the class site know that these courses are now available in a new language? 00:55:26.998 --> 00:55:36.257 (Kuo) Sure. So, once a course's content is both complete and reviewed, 00:55:36.447 --> 00:55:41.740 which are two separate sets on Transifex, we actually have an automated script 00:55:41.740 --> 00:55:48.325 that sort of checks for these two things to be true, and then we'll, you know, 00:55:48.325 --> 00:55:54.682 import the translated subtitles to that course's class site on Coursera. 00:55:55.445 --> 00:56:01.851 And so, first and foremost, as, when you visit like the class page 00:56:02.237 --> 00:56:04.383 that kind of introduces the course information, 00:56:04.384 --> 00:56:10.470 there'll be a little, like, a module on the right that displays information about the course. 00:56:10.470 --> 00:56:13.974 And one of those facets is available subtitles. 00:56:13.974 --> 00:56:19.482 And so you'll see, if there's available subtitles for Chinese and Spanish, 00:56:19.482 --> 00:56:22.724 then it'll say "English, Chinese and Spanish subtitles." 00:56:23.111 --> 00:56:27.716 And so, that's kind of the first point where somebody would notice something about that (check) 00:56:28.030 --> 00:56:31.923 And then also, as it works on YouTube, like while you're watching a video, 00:56:31.934 --> 00:56:34.783 there'll be a sort of a closed caption / subtitle button 00:56:35.024 --> 00:56:39.152 and hopefully, you know, people will see that and click it 00:56:39.152 --> 00:56:42.898 and see that there's the list of, like, available subtitles, 00:56:43.562 --> 00:56:46.522 and one that may match, like the one that they're trying to look for. 00:56:46.969 --> 00:56:50.779 We also work with course instructors to sort of have them, 00:56:50.785 --> 00:56:58.687 like a lot of course instructors, you know, market and promote their own courses themselves 00:56:58.687 --> 00:57:03.319 and so, you know, through our partnership managers and also us, 00:57:03.319 --> 00:57:08.829 like, we work very closely with them to sort of keep them abreast about translation progress 00:57:08.829 --> 00:57:13.019 and you know, let them know, like oh, like these language subtitles (check) are available 00:57:13.021 --> 00:57:16.494 and so that they can also promote that to their students outside of Coursera 00:57:16.494 --> 00:57:20.188 or on Coursera itself through an e-mail or their forums. 00:57:21.270 --> 00:57:25.280 (Eli Bindner) Thanks, Sébastien. So let me just answer a couple more questions very quickly 00:57:25.280 --> 00:57:27.294 and then wrap things up. 00:57:28.471 --> 00:57:31.012 So there is a great question about translating the user interface, 00:57:31.012 --> 00:57:33.966 " Is it possible to translate that with Transifex?" 00:57:34.187 --> 00:57:38.289 So right now, we work with professional translators to translate our user interface 00:57:39.041 --> 00:57:44.345 and in the future it's something we'd love to consider opening up to the community as well. 00:57:45.515 --> 00:57:50.841 You know, part of, I guess -- what we're thinking is that once the community develops and grows, that 00:57:50.841 --> 00:57:54.364 -- and matures and there is more structure in it -- and that will be the appropriate time 00:57:54.364 --> 00:57:55.812 to open up the interface. 00:57:55.812 --> 00:57:58.781 Because obviously, the interface is something that's very visible 00:57:58.781 --> 00:58:02.204 and, you know, it's really important that the quality is super-high. 00:58:02.532 --> 00:58:08.046 Right now, we're still working on improving the technical aspects of translating the user interface. 00:58:08.046 --> 00:58:14.149 It's actually somewhat tricky, when you pull down the text from the interface to a translation form, 00:58:14.149 --> 00:58:17.037 making sure that there is enough context there to translate it. 00:58:17.295 --> 00:58:20.255 So, you know, for instance, sole example: 00:58:21.077 --> 00:58:24.435 you know, someone reported a translation error the other day 00:58:24.435 --> 00:58:29.743 where it said "There are three days left to register for signature track." 00:58:29.749 --> 00:58:35.039 And "left" was translated as, in French, as the word meaning, physically left. 00:58:35.879 --> 00:58:40.448 And, you know, clearly, this is a big problem but on our translations platform, 00:58:40.449 --> 00:58:45.959 that string "left" was in isolation and was used in two separate locations, 00:58:45.959 --> 00:58:50.754 so it actually takes a lot of work, technically and programatically 00:58:50.754 --> 00:58:55.737 to make sure that the interface translations work well and you don't have silly errors like that. 00:58:55.737 --> 00:58:59.325 So, it's something we'd love to do in future. Thanks for the great question, Leonardo. 00:59:00.766 --> 00:59:05.904 Another question about: "Currently, most of the translations are English course to other languages," 00:59:05.909 --> 00:59:08.251 you know, would we consider going the other way around? 00:59:08.251 --> 00:59:10.670 Great question: the answer is definitely yes. 00:59:11.843 --> 00:59:14.494 Already, you know, I've seen some amazing things. 00:59:14.494 --> 00:59:20.991 Our Chinese community has translated Russian and is now working on Russian and French courses, 00:59:20.991 --> 00:59:25.710 translating them into Chinese or adding Chinese subtitles: totally amazing 00:59:26.282 --> 00:59:29.293 and we'd love to introduce other language pairs in the near future. 00:59:29.293 --> 00:59:33.195 Again: on the road map and and once the community matures a little bit, 00:59:33.195 --> 00:59:35.852 it's something that we definitely want to do. 00:59:35.852 --> 00:59:39.301 I would love to work on translating Chinese courses: I speak Chinese 00:59:39.852 --> 00:59:43.198 [blurred] some amazing Chinese courses on our platform 00:59:43.514 --> 00:59:45.237 and I'd love to see those available. 00:59:45.237 --> 00:59:49.053 So, thanks for the great question, Yufan. And-- 00:59:49.053 --> 00:59:54.899 (Kuo) You know, Eli, it'd be pretty cool one day for you to lead a Chinese community 00:59:54.899 --> 00:59:59.644 -- GTC Community --- Google Hangout On Air, your Chinese is really impressive. 00:59:59.644 --> 01:00:01.941 As a native speaker I can say that. (EB overlaps - incomprehensible) 01:00:01.941 --> 01:00:04.776 (Bindner) Yes, that would be fun with me and Kuo co-partners. 01:00:04.776 --> 01:00:08.950 There's another question about Chinese, I think this is a broader question about -- 01:00:08.951 --> 01:00:13.561 the question is, you know, obviously there are different dialects of Chinese, 01:00:13.561 --> 01:00:17.851 there's Cantonese, there is, you know, traditional characters and simplified characters, 01:00:17.851 --> 01:00:22.127 slightly different usages in, say, Taiwan and Mainland: how do we deal with that? 01:00:22.127 --> 01:00:24.457 I think there's a broader question of, you know, 01:00:24.457 --> 01:00:26.754 there is Brazilian Portuguese and there is European Portuguese, you know, 01:00:26.754 --> 01:00:29.177 what kind of Spanish are we accepting on the platform? 01:00:29.587 --> 01:00:34.483 These are all great questions and these are things that we'll kind of need to work out on a case-by-case basis. 01:00:35.044 --> 01:00:38.707 You know, we'll talk about this more in our forums but, you know, 01:00:38.717 --> 01:00:40.065 we think that it makes sense 01:00:40.065 --> 01:00:44.663 to have separate languages for European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese, for instance, 01:00:44.663 --> 01:00:49.441 that it'll just be a clearer and cleaner experience for both students and translators 01:00:50.062 --> 01:00:53.542 and certainly, there are things that can be done 01:00:53.552 --> 01:00:58.789 in converting from Simplified Chinese to Traditional Chinese, programmatically, 01:00:59.268 --> 01:01:01.902 but, you know, that's something that we'll need to consider as well. 01:01:01.902 --> 01:01:07.144 So, great question from Wah, thank you for asking it, and the answer is that 01:01:07.153 --> 01:01:09.684 we'll need to work this out on a case-by-case basis. 01:01:11.435 --> 01:01:14.840 Let's see if there's any really quick questions that we can answer. 01:01:20.554 --> 01:01:25.104 I think, because we're at 9 o'clock and I want to be respectful of everyone's time, 01:01:25.104 --> 01:01:28.879 and so I think we should probably wrap this up and again, 01:01:28.879 --> 01:01:34.354 we'll look through the questions that are outstanding and I'll make sure that any, kind of fine ones (check) 01:01:34.354 --> 01:01:37.458 are answered in the forums or in other channels. 01:01:38.051 --> 01:01:40.670 For my part, I just want to thank everyone for being here today. 01:01:40.670 --> 01:01:46.407 I know it's probably crazy time zones, some of you are turning in at, you know, 11 p.m., 01:01:46.407 --> 01:01:53.986 and others at 3 a.m., and ......................... (check) sometimes. 01:01:54.596 --> 01:01:58.944 But we're really, really grateful for everyone being here and spending the time with us, 01:01:58.944 --> 01:02:02.019 asking great questions, and for all your work. 01:02:02.476 --> 01:02:07.673 Thanks for inviting Daphne and for the rest of the time i'll share with you, Sébastien, 01:02:07.682 --> 01:02:11.454 are there any final words you wanted to add as well. 01:02:11.871 --> 01:02:18.702 (Kuo) Yeah, I mean, you know, everyday I am super-impressed with the dedication 01:02:18.702 --> 01:02:23.406 from both Coursera learners and our GTC members. 01:02:24.435 --> 01:02:32.392 You know, as a person who works in localization, languages has always been my passion, like, 01:02:32.392 --> 01:02:33.712 since I was a little kid. 01:02:33.712 --> 01:02:36.794 I would go to public libraries and take out, like phrasebooks, 01:02:36.794 --> 01:02:40.685 just to sort of, like, look at these weird words and try to understand what they mean. 01:02:40.685 --> 01:02:44.828 And I think one of the most gratifying things about building out a community like this 01:02:44.828 --> 01:02:50.063 is that, you know, reading through all your responses, especially to that question on the application 01:02:50.063 --> 01:02:51.586 that's like (check): "Why do I want to translate?" 01:02:52.350 --> 01:02:58.271 you know, I see that there are so many people like me, like you, that are really -- 01:02:58.756 --> 01:03:05.021 that not only believe in Coursera's mission of increasing the accessibility of education 01:03:05.021 --> 01:03:10.323 but also, really believe in the value of translation and community building. 01:03:10.323 --> 01:03:15.103 And so, I just want to let you guys know that Eli and I are committed 01:03:15.103 --> 01:03:24.698 to sort of -- to build out a program that not only lets you shine and lets you contribute back to Coursera, 01:03:25.934 --> 01:03:34.514 but also, you know, take that work and, you know, use it to make other Coursera learners 01:03:35.807 --> 01:03:40.689 more enabled to access our really great content. So, thank you. 01:03:40.690 --> 01:03:45.971 (Eli Bindner) Okay, well, as we say, thank you, gracias, спасибо, actually we could go on, 01:03:45.971 --> 01:03:49.553 but we really appreciate everyone being here, and we'll see you, see you out. 01:03:49.935 --> 01:03:52.456 (Kuo) Definitely. Thanks.