0:00:03.591,0:00:10.734 (S. Kuo) Hello everyone and welcome to the GTC's first kick-off hangout on air event. 0:00:11.513,0:00:16.147 We're so excited in having [you] join us and to answer your questions live 0:00:16.722,0:00:19.963 I am Sébastien, you may have received an email from me 0:00:20.147,0:00:23.630 I am the program manager for localization here at Coursera 0:00:23.953,0:00:28.768 And I am joined by Eli over here, on your right, 0:00:28.768,0:00:32.124 who is Product Manager for International Growth, 0:00:32.125,0:00:37.895 as well as Daphne, our illustrious co-founder and President of Coursera. 0:00:38.700,0:00:42.277 First off, I want to thank our volunteers. 0:00:43.267,0:00:46.536 In just a short two and half weeks since we launched the program, 0:00:46.538,0:00:52.524 we've had over (check) 25'000 people who joined across a variety of languages. 0:00:52.524,0:00:56.003 The response has been overwhelming and truly impressive 0:00:56.420,0:01:01.496 and I am impressed everyday by the dedication 0:01:01.496,0:01:05.496 that the Coursera community is showing towards this translation's program. 0:01:06.145,0:01:10.628 In that short time, we've already had nine courses translated 0:01:11.039,0:01:16.280 70% or more towards completion, which represents over a milion words. 0:01:16.280,0:01:22.304 So I want to thank you again and again for your tireless effort and hard work. 0:01:23.110,0:01:25.241 So, the structure of today's event: 0:01:26.104,0:01:29.451 We'll begin with Daphne giving us a brief welcome 0:01:29.455,0:01:33.554 and answering any questions that you may have about Coursera 0:01:33.554,0:01:35.681 and our international growth strategy. 0:01:35.951,0:01:42.311 Following that, Eli and I will be happy to take questions about the GTC 0:01:42.311,0:01:47.910 ............. (check) or any other thing that may have to do with your daily interaction (check) 0:01:47.910,0:01:50.661 feedback about the translation's program. 0:01:51.362,0:01:54.772 In order to ask questions through Google Hangouts on Air, 0:01:55.383,0:02:00.118 you'll notice a section on the right that has a 'Ask a question' button. 0:02:00.390,0:02:04.647 So if you click on that, it'll allow you to type in your question into the text box 0:02:04.647,0:02:07.312 and when you're ready to send it, click 'Submit'. 0:02:07.312,0:02:11.644 Eli will be fielding and moderating the questions as they come through. 0:02:12.249,0:02:15.339 So, without much further ado, Daphne, 0:02:15.357,0:02:18.499 would you like to say something, say hello? 0:02:19.272,0:33:34.061 (D. Koller) 2:19 -> 33:34 0:33:34.061,0:33:38.572 (Eli Bildner) Great, thanks so much, Daphne, and then again, just to remind everyone here, 0:33:38.573,0:33:45.424 so now I will spend some time talking more specifically about the GTC and we'll let you get on with your day 0:33:45.424,0:33:47.745 But thanks again for having been with us.[br](Koller) Thank you. - Thank you 0:33:49.807,0:33:54.781 (Bildner) Just a reminder: if you see questions that are being asked on the ...... (check 33:50) 0:33:54.781,0:33:58.982 and that you're really in ........ (check) boost them up so they come to our attention. 0:34:00.180,0:34:06.075 And - let's take a quick look at kind of questions have been asked already. 0:34:06.075,0:34:10.669 So, I see that there is a great question here about translation quality. 0:34:10.669,0:34:17.787 Sébastien, do you want to talk a little about what we're thinking about ensuring translation quality in the GTC 0:34:17.787,0:34:19.398 and what kind of procedure ...... (check) on place? 0:34:19.398,0:34:30.084 (Kuo) Sure. So, the way we tried to continually up quality of the translations from GTC 0:34:30.084,0:34:37.394 is to have sort of a tutoring system for, you know, as individual like volunteers (check) 0:34:37.394,0:34:44.393 we rely on you just sort of submit the translations and let us know what you think would be the best translation 0:34:44.393,0:34:52.440 but obviously, there is a lot of range of opinions and a lot of different ways you can translate something. 0:34:52.440,0:34:59.350 And so, I think it's always important to have at least one person per language 0:34:59.350,0:35:04.398 to sort of be that voice and have the final say in deciding, 0:35:04.398,0:35:09.008 this is how we want to present translations of our content in this language. 0:35:09.008,0:35:14.450 And so, in this capacity, we have a specific role, known as the language coordinator. 0:35:14.988,0:35:17.408 Not all languages have this at the moment. 0:35:17.703,0:35:26.493 As we scale up the program and learn from the particular needs of each community, 0:35:26.876,0:35:32.456 we intend to fill those spots where we can, strategically 0:35:32.843,0:35:39.126 and give that person the responsibility of deciding the directions of translation for the language 0:35:39.126,0:35:45.364 but also having the daily task of reviewing translations on Transifex, 0:35:45.364,0:35:49.149 to make sure that everything is always correct, 0:35:49.149,0:35:53.370 but also in line with what they sort of are wanting to project, 0:35:53.370,0:35:58.353 like when we have that translated content shown to our international users. (35:56) 0:35:59.009,0:36:00.634 (Bildner) Thanks, Sébastien. 0:36:00.985,0:36:02.130 I wanted to talk a little bit 0:36:02.130,0:36:07.192 -- there's a question here from .... (check) about when language coordinators will be chosen. 0:36:07.458,0:36:17.692 So, as Sébastien mentioned, ....... (check) is being totally thrilled and overwhelmed, frankly, with response to the GTC 0:36:17.692,0:36:19.832 and are really grateful to everyone. 0:36:19.849,0:36:25.223 Part of the challenge for us, now, is that we're a tiny team here ...... (check 36:23) 0:36:25.223,0:36:32.737 and we're trying to help kind of enable this program and channel the great work that everyone here is doing. 0:36:32.737,0:36:36.848 So, as part of that, we're working a little bit more slowly than I think we would have liked. 0:36:37.403,0:36:44.607 But as a first step, we really wanted to bring everyone onto this internal translation portal, these GTC Headquarters, 0:36:44.607,0:36:48.552 and also give everyone the ability to just kind of jump into things. 0:36:48.871,0:36:51.502 And as Sébastien mentioned, we sort of have this tutorate system 0:36:51.502,0:36:54.504 where we work with partners in certain languages 0:36:54.504,0:36:57.204 and then, for other languages where we don't have partners yet, 0:36:57.204,0:37:01.778 although youknow, we very well might in the future, it's a little bit more unstructured now. 0:37:01.778,0:37:06.831 But part of the structure that we will be building into these currently unpartnered languages 0:37:06.831,0:37:08.682 is by bringing in language partners 0:37:08.682,0:37:15.145 So we've been thrilled to see a lot of interest from people all around in serving as language coordinators. 0:37:15.145,0:37:19.610 And over the next week or two, we'll be looking through those applications 0:37:19.610,0:37:22.552 and working out procedures to ...... (check) language coordinators. 0:37:22.552,0:37:25.852 An idea is that right now, things are very unstructured. 0:37:25.858,0:37:29.678 If you -- you know, you just have a list of courses, you can jump in and translate, 0:37:29.678,0:37:33.437 there's no one for unpartnered languages to really review 0:37:33.850,0:37:38.060 but the idea is that we'll be building out a lot more structure around that 0:37:38.077,0:37:40.052 and we think that structure is really effective, 0:37:40.052,0:37:45.152 - we've seen it be really effective in our Portuguese and Chinese language communities 0:37:45.152,0:37:51.854 that work on this team model, where there are team leaders and they help recruit a team 0:37:51.869,0:37:55.902 and then at the end, when the course is finished, the team leaders help review the content 0:37:55.902,0:37:58.289 and then you can ensure really high-quality translation, 0:37:58.289,0:38:02.421 while also creating a really good experience for everyone participating. 0:38:02.623,0:38:05.475 So, that's one model that's worked really well 0:38:05.475,0:38:11.165 and we hope to bring some of that into our currently unpartnered languages too. 0:38:11.172,0:38:16.180 So again, thank you for your patience in these initital days and couple of weeks 0:38:16.180,0:38:22.453 and over the next week (check) we'll be digging much more into the currently unpartnered languages 0:38:22.453,0:38:26.774 to help create a more structured and smoother experience around those. 0:38:26.794,0:38:29.619 Amazingly -- this is a final note and sorry to talk so much -- 0:38:30.929,0:38:33.564 you know, we've been totally overwhelmed by how 0:38:33.575,0:38:37.737 -- even for these languages where there hasn't been a lot of structure -- 0:38:37.737,0:38:43.146 how busy ....... (check) and how a lot of you are creating structure in the absence of structure. 0:38:43.813,0:38:46.108 So, really, really impressed and grateful for that, 0:38:46.108,0:38:49.646 and we're hoping to help a little bit more on our end over the next .... weeks (38:50) 0:38:50.055,0:38:56.690 (Kuo) Yes, and I also want to mention that, you know, as we sort of are getting over this, sic, initial 0:38:56.690,0:39:02.848 -- I guess I'll catch up in trying to get everyone into the community and get started -- 0:39:04.143,0:39:07.717 we're freeing up more time to sort of engage with you directly. 0:39:08.135,0:39:16.012 I think it's, you know, I think the beauty of -- ....... (check) like you said, Eli -- of crowdsourcing 0:39:16.012,0:39:20.401 is the fact that, like, we all have different skills and different interests 0:39:20.404,0:39:25.616 and, you know, different amounts of time that we're able to contribute. 0:39:25.618,0:39:30.504 And, you know, [to match check], I look at it as our job to figure out 0:39:31.157,0:39:34.873 how to best enable everyone to work the way that they want to work together, 0:39:35.194,0:39:36.982 and complement those skills. 0:39:36.982,0:39:41.799 So, that's sort of the philosophy behind the way that we are approaching 0:39:42.486,0:39:44.813 building up this structure of the translations programs. 0:39:44.813,0:39:48.479 The other aspect, though, is community, 0:39:48.496,0:39:51.346 which I feel like is the primary focus. 0:39:51.823,0:39:56.186 And, you know, as we have more bandwidth (check) to sort of personally engage with you, 0:39:57.599,0:40:03.477 either through forums or emails, you know, I can see this consistently like 0:40:04.279,0:40:07.785 this is a learning experience for a lot of us, you know, 0:40:07.785,0:40:12.633 and you know, I -- as the people on the ground, like I want to hear, you know, 0:40:12.633,0:40:15.076 your feedback and your ideas, you know, 0:40:15.076,0:40:17.779 like Eli mentioned that some people are creating structures on their own 0:40:18.115,0:40:24.105 and that is stuff that should be shared with us, you know, so that we can, you know, learn from 0:40:24.105,0:40:29.002 how you guys best work and what we can promote to other people 0:40:29.285,0:40:35.017 and evolve, so that we take the best of what's happening within the community 0:40:35.497,0:40:37.641 and make the entire community better. 0:40:38.556,0:40:43.709 (Bildner) Thanks, Sébastien. There's a question here, asked from Luis (check) - thank you Luis. 0:40:43.960,0:40:47.046 "Are you going to offer some capacitation for translators?" 0:40:47.647,0:40:52.137 I'm not -- I hope I'm answering this as you intended but I think the question is, 0:40:52.137,0:41:00.165 "What kind of recognition does Coursera provide for people that are participating in this program?" 0:41:00.575,0:41:07.888 And as we tried to mention in different areas in the forums and emails, 0:41:08.288,0:41:12.007 we really want to recognize the amazing work that's going on in the community 0:41:12.007,0:41:14.162 and so we're doing a number of things for that. 0:41:14.162,0:41:20.136 So one is, once you translate, once a member of the GTC translates a certain threshold, 0:41:20.136,0:41:24.955 a certain amount of content, they will be recognized on our public site 0:41:24.955,0:41:30.837 and we think that this is hopefully a nice way to recognize people putting in time and energy 0:41:30.837,0:41:38.334 by recognizing them on our public site on coursera.org/about/meetourtranslators 0:41:39.103,0:41:44.343 -- I think that's the URL but we'll make sure that it's clear in our GTC headquarters -- 0:41:44.590,0:41:45.764 and that's one way. 0:41:45.969,0:41:49.508 Another way is by offering certificates. 0:41:49.508,0:41:55.123 I know there is another question about, will Coursera have some formal recognition for translators, 0:41:55.123,0:41:58.661 and so, for translators who have participated at a certain level, 0:41:59.647,0:42:03.887 you'll receive a statement of accomplishment, just like one from a course, 0:42:04.332,0:42:07.747 and that's something that we're also open to ............ (check) including, 0:42:07.747,0:42:13.255 but as a start, that's just one form of recognition that we want to give, for 0:42:13.713,0:42:17.112 -- you know, we -- once we have a little bit more structure, 0:42:17.112,0:42:19.465 particularly for languages that are currently unpartnered, 0:42:19.465,0:42:22.574 it'll be easier for us to introduce some of these reward systems. 0:42:22.575,0:42:27.581 So one thing that we're doing both in the Chinese and Portuguese communities now, 0:42:27.581,0:42:32.385 where we do have a little bit more structure, is that we are offering team leaders, 0:42:32.385,0:42:36.588 so, people who are ...... (check) effort and pouring a lot of energy into translation, 0:42:37.470,0:42:40.717 get a free signature track, and that's something that will continue 0:42:40.990,0:42:43.860 and then we want to do all sorts of small things too. 0:42:43.860,0:42:49.676 I'm sure I'm missing things, l -- let's have a peak on our Global Translator Community Headquarters 0:42:49.676,0:42:53.606 and go through this stuff in detail, so I recommend .... (check) check that out 0:42:54.134,0:42:57.336 But we want to do lots of small things too, for instance this sort of hangout, 0:42:57.336,0:43:02.372 which is only open to you GTC members, other special events, you know, 0:43:02.372,0:43:06.381 one thing -- things we've done in the past, are bringing in professors of courses 0:43:06.381,0:43:08.622 to do hangouts on air like this, 0:43:09.381,0:43:15.204 facilitating regional meetups of translators, maybe providing some, you know, financial support 0:43:15.500,0:43:17.985 to make those kinds of regional meetups possible. 0:43:17.985,0:43:24.038 And I think there are tons of ways that we can help recognize the work that is going on in the community. 0:43:25.627,0:43:27.939 And I think at the end of the day, Sébastien 0:43:27.939,0:43:32.774 -- ............ (check) community supportive of the people who are involved in it -- 0:43:32.774,0:43:38.533 so, this is really important to us and we really, we welcome your feedback and any ideas that you have. 0:43:38.533,0:43:40.396 So hopefully, that answers your question, Luis, 0:43:40.411,0:43:42.180 and I know that lots of other people are interested in that as well. 0:43:46.793,0:43:49.027 Let's take a look at some of these other questions here. 0:43:49.050,0:43:53.531 So, there's a good question about choosing courses. 0:43:53.531,0:43:56.907 Sébastien, do you want to talk a little bit about how, you know, 0:43:56.907,0:44:02.718 how we might allow volunteers to help choose the courses that we're working on? 0:44:03.645,0:44:06.776 (Sébastien) Errh, totally. So just some background about 0:44:07.311,0:44:12.748 -- some insight into how we choose the courses that we currently translate, 0:44:12.879,0:44:16.192 because I realize that's, like, a little bit "black box" at the moment. 0:44:17.128,0:44:23.258 We work with either partners in different countries, like you already mentioned, 0:44:23.624,0:44:31.113 or using analytics data to just sort of understand the needs of various populations 0:44:31.521,0:44:34.165 and determine the appropriateness of courses 0:44:34.165,0:44:40.331 and that's sort of like the primary driver of how we decide that we want to translate a course. 0:44:41.471,0:44:44.996 And then, even before that happens, a lot of -- 0:44:46.212,0:44:51.260 course instructors, you know, they are ultimately the ones that can -- 0:44:51.788,0:44:55.680 we work with course instructors to enable courses for tranlation, right? 0:44:55.858,0:44:59.901 And so, in order to make sure that translation work is not, 0:45:01.272,0:45:04.157 I don't (check) want to say, like, wasted, 0:45:04.502,0:45:10.815 but we work with course instructors to make sure that their course content is stable, 0:45:11.035,0:45:16.303 as in, like, it will be reused in the future and won't change significantly, 0:45:16.303,0:45:19.739 so that, like, the translation work that you guys will put in 0:45:20.657,0:45:28.651 won't be just eliminated if they just decide to change individual modules. 0:45:29.083,0:45:33.739 And so, there's sort of a discussion process here about, like, 0:45:33.739,0:45:36.917 selecting the courses and making sure that they are appropriate for translation. 0:45:37.643,0:45:42.250 And then, to get to your specific question, I think that having a feedback module 0:45:42.250,0:45:47.958 for community members to tell us what they want to see translated is really important 0:45:48.163,0:45:53.923 and something that is on our, like, near-future road map. 0:45:54.229,0:45:57.811 I don't know if it will be like a Google form, or something in the forums, 0:45:57.822,0:46:04.272 but I think it's really important to collect that kind of -- those requests from people 0:46:04.282,0:46:08.193 who actually are the people who would be most interested in taking those courses. 0:46:08.543,0:46:14.146 And so, good idea, something we've already thought about and hope to implement soon. 0:46:15.070,0:46:22.060 (Bildner) Thanks, Sébastien. A really fundamental and important question from Tasia. 0:46:22.565,0:46:28.006 Tasia asks: "I'm not sure how to get started. Do we get assigned to a project or do we choose one? 0:46:28.006,0:46:29.522 What should we do. Thanks." 0:46:29.522,0:46:34.184 Thank you, Tasia. So, right -- so, basically, this is how it works: 0:46:34.184,0:46:38.100 so, you're part of the GTC community, you're part -- 0:46:38.492,0:46:44.898 you've access to this internal private translators' portal, the Global Translator Community Headquarters. 0:46:45.825,0:46:49.934 And once you come on the Headquarters, there are different features for each language community. 0:46:50.415,0:46:54.122 And the pages explain how to get started within that language community 0:46:54.122,0:46:57.568 and each language community will be a little bit different. 0:46:58.032,0:47:01.913 That's part of, you know, in designing the program we wanted maintain flexibility. 0:47:01.913,0:47:05.194 So, for instance, if you want to join the Chinese language community 0:47:05.201,0:47:06.335 if you're a Chinese speaker, 0:47:07.062,0:47:10.751 we work with a partner, a wonderful partner, Guokr, in China 0:47:10.751,0:47:16.040 and so, you go to the page and Guokr explains how to join the Guokr program. 0:47:17.065,0:47:20.657 Our Portuguese community, which is managed by Tatiana, 0:47:20.657,0:47:25.040 I don't know if Tatiana is here today, but thank you for all the amazing work you're doing, 0:47:25.040,0:47:27.250 our friends of the Lemann Foundation in Brazil. 0:47:28.943,0:47:30.836 This is a Brazilian Portuguese community. 0:47:31.615,0:47:36.594 There is a page for that, you go to that page, and then you can apply to work on a particular program. 0:47:36.594,0:47:38.863 So they work on a team-based model. 0:47:39.615,0:47:45.030 Right now, as I mentioned before, besides Portuguese and Chinese and Russian 0:47:45.030,0:47:47.551 -- I'm sorry, so Russian ..... our friends at ABBYY -- 0:47:48.486,0:47:53.495 have a system where you go to a different platform outside Coursera 0:47:53.495,0:47:57.807 and it's a kind of crowdsourcing model, so you can add a sentence, 0:47:57.807,0:48:02.364 or upload or download existent translations, it's a really really wonderful platform 0:48:02.702,0:48:05.974 and their page on the Coursera Translator Headquarters explains 0:48:05.974,0:48:07.542 how to get started on that. 0:48:08.089,0:48:11.528 So, if you're not from one of those communities right now, we have other pages, 0:48:11.762,0:48:16.702 our page for Other Languages and Spanish, which is also currently still a little bit more "free for all" (check) 0:48:17.003,0:48:22.049 and again, we'll be building in structure to that by this language coordinators mechanism. 0:48:22.049,0:48:27.660 So once language coordinators come onboard, there'll be more structure in these communities as well. 0:48:27.660,0:48:31.060 But for now, you should feel free to jump in to Transifex, 0:48:31.060,0:48:35.665 which is our main translation platform, and just start working on translations. 0:48:36.007,0:48:40.522 And we realize that there are going to be inconsistencies in the courses, 0:48:40.969,0:48:43.580 that these courses need to be reviewed, 0:48:43.892,0:48:48.673 but very quickly, we will get a language coordinator system moving, 0:48:48.890,0:48:53.340 and a reviewer system in place and so, things will be better on that part. 0:48:53.994,0:48:59.284 That's a summary of how you should get started translating. 0:48:59.829,0:49:04.077 (Sébastien) And it's also worth mentioning that we've listed a few projects 0:49:04.077,0:49:08.569 that represent some of those most popular courses on Coursera 0:49:08.569,0:49:13.397 under that Other Languages tab, and so, even if you want, like, more -- 0:49:13.807,0:49:20.014 if you just want to dive in and like, choose a course out of the vast number of courses 0:49:20.014,0:49:23.664 that we are offering for translation, then that's also a good starting point. 0:49:24.477,0:49:29.543 (Bildner) Thanks. There is a good question here about native language course transcripts. 0:49:29.867,0:49:34.322 By the way, another housekeeping note: I see it's already 8:50 a.m. PST, 0:49:34.322,0:49:37.021 so, Sébastien and I will chat for another 10 minutes. 0:49:37.482,0:49:42.542 There are definitely questions we are not going to get to, but we'll go through the questions 0:49:42.543,0:49:47.730 and we'll make sure that any questions that are, you know, that need to be answered, 0:49:47.730,0:49:51.054 are answered in the discussion forums of the GTC portal. 0:49:51.695,0:49:55.319 We'll do this again, I think it is a great mechanism for sharing information with our community 0:49:55.319,0:49:57.191 Thanks again to everyone for being here. 0:49:57.204,0:49:59.577 That said, let's take a couple more questions. 0:49:59.577,0:50:01.705 So about the English language transcripts. 0:50:01.705,0:50:05.825 So how it works right now is when a -- so Coursera is a platform. 0:50:05.838,0:50:10.540 Our university partners use the platform and when they create content on the platform, 0:50:10.540,0:50:15.891 when they add videos to the platform, they can request captioning, native-language captioning for those videos, 0:50:17.001,0:50:20.603 When they request captioning, that goes to a company that we work with, 0:50:20.931,0:50:23.668 that does human language-captioning of videos. 0:50:23.668,0:50:27.380 So then people listen to the videos and actually, 0:50:27.699,0:50:32.950 humans write out the words that are being spoken on the screens. 0:50:32.964,0:50:37.552 Now, the people who are doing these captions, they are not subject-matter experts, 0:50:37.552,0:50:40.911 so, for instance in the course on Machine Learning, you know, 0:50:40.911,0:50:44.718 they're probably going to get some words wrong, there are going to be grammatical mistakes 0:50:45.003,0:50:48.462 and, you know, one of the challenges that I realize, that we certainly realize is a challenge, 0:50:48.462,0:50:50.581 is that English transcripts are not perfect. 0:50:50.845,0:50:54.917 We think that they've improved a lot, we've worked with this provider that we use to improve that. 0:50:55.342,0:50:59.544 I don't know if any, if actually some of you had been on the platform for a couple of years 0:50:59.544,0:51:01.636 and saw the transcripts back in 2012, 0:51:01.636,0:51:04.753 and maybe you can tell that they have gone better -- I hope so. 0:51:05.431,0:51:07.937 But one thing that we'd really love to do in the future 0:51:07.938,0:51:13.131 is that native English speakers participate in this translation program as well 0:51:13.131,0:51:16.772 and work on correcting the English language transcription, 0:51:16.772,0:51:18.724 verifying that as corrected (check). 0:51:19.268,0:51:23.724 This is somewhat difficult technically and we don't really have an infrastructure for it 0:51:23.724,0:51:26.127 -- infrastructure or a program for it right now, 0:51:26.370,0:51:29.017 but I think it's a great idea, it's something that we'd love to do, 0:51:29.017,0:51:36.410 because we realize that as Aurelia (check) says, it does make translation harder, 0:51:37.385,0:51:40.580 because you have to consult the videos as you're going through the transcripts. 0:51:40.580,0:51:44.434 So, thanks for the question. Definitely agreeing and would love to -- 0:51:44.438,0:51:46.853 and we're planning on working on it in the future. 0:51:49.749,0:51:52.103 Alright. Other questions. 0:51:56.505,0:51:59.755 Sorry, looking through the great questions here. 0:52:00.296,0:52:03.518 Sébastien, one for you: "Is there any Coursera-approved information 0:52:03.518,0:52:09.856 on tech details of translating subtitles, such as, what is the longest line that would fit into a screen? 0:52:10.159,0:52:16.157 Other kinds of technical details about using the platform, or maybe kind of translation best practices? 0:52:16.974,0:52:25.882 (Kuo) Ehm, yeah, I mean, as like, I think I can, like, if you just follow sort of the -- 0:52:27.335,0:52:31.463 like general translation best practices, they should cover almost any issues that you'll face. 0:52:31.463,0:52:37.823 I think one will be working with something as, I want to say like a rigid format like subtitles, 0:52:38.820,0:52:41.882 you know, there's not a whole lot of margin for errors. 0:52:41.882,0:52:46.730 So the advice that I would give for translating is that, you know, 0:52:47.215,0:52:54.153 first and foremost, like, you know, consider the semantic meaning of the text that you're translating. 0:52:54.525,0:53:00.770 So, if you are in Transifex and you see the subtitles, you'll see that they're grouped by sort of lines, 0:53:00.770,0:53:05.387 where it, like, the screen, the individual sentences that will come up at a time, 0:53:05.697,0:53:08.605 and a lot of people sort of, like, fall into this trap of like, 0:53:08.605,0:53:13.667 "Oh I need to, like, format my translations in, like, exact same line breaks" 0:53:13.667,0:53:19.035 or like, where, like, the English sentence, like, starts on a new line 0:53:19.035,0:53:26.472 and I would say, don't give yourself a headache like doing that, you know, 0:53:26.801,0:53:31.769 I've seen like a lot of trans-- innovative (check) translators, like, 0:53:32.424,0:53:36.389 take source text and translate it into for example Russian, 0:53:36.389,0:53:40.728 and they will rearrange the sentences so it makes more sense in Russian. 0:53:40.728,0:53:46.109 And so, feel free to do that if you feel, like, that is what is valuable for you as a native speaker. 0:53:47.417,0:53:53.572 In terms of length, I would also try -- that's kind of the one concern I would advise for, 0:53:53.572,0:53:57.495 like try to stick within, or under the length of the subtitles, 0:53:57.505,0:54:02.471 because subtitles, if you go on too long, it can impact the readability 0:54:02.809,0:54:06.381 and so, always err on sort of shorter translations 0:54:06.753,0:54:12.902 and use the source text as your bar to measure against. 0:54:13.999,0:54:17.806 And then, you know, as I've been sort of explaining through Transifex 0:54:17.806,0:54:24.250 when people submit a translation, I try to keep a list of sort of these, like, issues where that came from, 0:54:24.574,0:54:28.246 I haven't noticed very many so far, but if you do have questions, 0:54:28.972,0:54:31.089 feel free to sort of write. 0:54:31.089,0:54:37.407 I can even actually start a sort of, like a Translation Best Practices forum within our GTC, 0:54:37.407,0:54:42.657 just keep that discussion going and collect your feedback and, you know, 0:54:42.659,0:54:47.888 help you guys with sort of the daily questions you might have about the work that you do. 0:54:48.840,0:54:53.550 (Bildner) Thanks, Sébastien. Another question here from Hunadahs 0:54:53.550,0:54:56.115 about promoting courses. 0:54:56.115,0:55:00.448 So, you know, the Translation Community translates a course, 0:55:00.449,0:55:02.520 the course is now available in another language. 0:55:03.409,0:55:04.726 a) how does this work? 0:55:04.726,0:55:10.394 And b) how do you students on Coursera know that that course is now available in this other language? 0:55:11.787,0:55:15.541 So, Sébastien, do you want to field that one, so how does, 0:55:15.544,0:55:21.522 how do courses get from the translation platform to the Coursera class site? 0:55:21.522,0:55:26.563 And then, how do students on the class site know that these courses are now available in a new language? 0:55:26.998,0:55:36.257 (Kuo) Sure. So, once a course's content is both complete and reviewed, 0:55:36.447,0:55:41.740 which are two separate sets on Transifex, we actually have an automated script 0:55:41.740,0:55:48.325 that sort of checks for these two things to be true, and then we'll, you know, 0:55:48.325,0:55:54.682 import the translated subtitles to that course's class site on Coursera. 0:55:55.445,0:56:01.851 And so, first and foremost, as, when you visit like the class page 0:56:02.237,0:56:04.383 that kind of introduces the course information, 0:56:04.384,0:56:10.470 there'll be a little, like, a module on the right that displays information about the course. 0:56:10.470,0:56:13.974 And one of those facets is available subtitles. 0:56:13.974,0:56:19.482 And so you'll see, if there's available subtitles for Chinese and Spanish, 0:56:19.482,0:56:22.724 then it'll say "English, Chinese and Spanish subtitles." 0:56:23.111,0:56:27.716 And so, that's kind of the first point where somebody would notice something about that (check) 0:56:28.030,0:56:31.923 And then also, as it works on YouTube, like while you're watching a video, 0:56:31.934,0:56:34.783 there'll be a sort of a closed caption / subtitle button 0:56:35.024,0:56:39.152 and hopefully, you know, people will see that and click it 0:56:39.152,0:56:42.898 and see that there's the list of, like, available subtitles, 0:56:43.562,0:56:46.522 and one that may match, like the one that they're trying to look for. 0:56:46.969,0:56:50.779 We also work with course instructors to sort of have them, 0:56:50.785,0:56:58.687 like a lot of course instructors, you know, market and promote their own courses themselves 0:56:58.687,0:57:03.319 and so, you know, through our partnership managers and also us, 0:57:03.319,0:57:08.829 like, we work very closely with them to sort of keep them abreast about translation progress 0:57:08.829,0:57:13.019 and you know, let them know, like oh, like these language subtitles (check) are available 0:57:13.021,0:57:16.494 and so that they can also promote that to their students outside of Coursera 0:57:16.494,0:57:20.188 or on Coursera itself through an e-mail or their forums. 0:57:21.270,0:57:25.280 (Eli Bildner) Thanks, Sébastien. So let me just answer a couple more questions very quickly 0:57:25.280,0:57:27.294 and then wrap things up. 0:57:28.471,0:57:31.012 So there is a great question about translating the user interface, 0:57:31.012,0:57:33.966 " Is it possible to translate that with Transifex?" 0:57:34.187,0:57:38.289 So right now, we work with professional translators to translate our user interface 0:57:39.041,0:57:44.345 and in the future it's something we'd love to consider opening up to the community as well. 0:57:45.515,0:57:50.841 You know, part of, I guess -- what we're thinking is that once the community develops and grows, that 0:57:50.841,0:57:54.364 -- and matures and there is more structure in it -- and that will be the appropriate time 0:57:54.364,0:57:55.812 to open up the interface. 0:57:55.812,0:57:58.781 Because obviously, the interface is something that's very visible 0:57:58.781,0:58:02.204 and, you know, it's really important that the quality is super-high. 0:58:02.532,0:58:08.046 Right now, we're still working on improving the technical aspects of translating the user interface. 0:58:08.046,0:58:14.149 It's actually somewhat tricky, when you pull down the text from the interface to a translation form, 0:58:14.149,0:58:17.037 making sure that there is enough context there to translate it. 0:58:17.295,0:58:20.255 So, you know, for instance, sole example: 0:58:21.077,0:58:24.435 you know, someone reported a translation error the other day 0:58:24.435,0:58:29.743 where it said "There are three days left to register for signature track." 0:58:29.749,0:58:35.039 And "left" was translated as, in French, as the word meaning, physically left. 0:58:35.879,0:58:40.448 And, you know, clearly, this is a big problem but on our translations platform, 0:58:40.449,0:58:45.959 that string "left" was in isolation and was used in two separate locations, 0:58:45.959,0:58:50.754 so it actually takes a lot of work, technically and programatically 0:58:50.754,0:58:55.737 to make sure that the interface translations work well and you don't have silly errors like that. 0:58:55.737,0:58:59.325 So, it's something we'd love to do in future. Thanks for the great question, Leonardo. 0:59:00.766,0:59:05.904 Another question about: "Currently, most of the translations are English course to other languages," 0:59:05.909,0:59:08.251 you know, would we consider going the other way around? 0:59:08.251,0:59:10.670 Great question: the answer is definitely yes. 0:59:11.843,0:59:14.494 Already, you know, I've seen some amazing things. 0:59:14.494,0:59:20.991 Our Chinese community has translated Russian and is now working on Russian and French courses, 0:59:20.991,0:59:25.710 translating them into Chinese or adding Chinese subtitles: totally amazing 0:59:26.282,0:59:29.293 and we'd love to introduce other language pairs in the near future. 0:59:29.293,0:59:33.195 Again: on the road map and and once the community matures a little bit, 0:59:33.195,0:59:35.852 it's something that we definitely want to do. 0:59:35.852,0:59:39.301 I would love to work on translating Chinese courses: I speak Chinese 0:59:39.852,0:59:43.198 [blurred] some amazing Chinese courses on our platform 0:59:43.514,0:59:45.237 and I'd love to see those available. 0:59:45.237,0:59:49.053 So, thanks for the great question, Yufan. And-- 0:59:49.053,0:59:54.899 (Kuo) You know, Eli, it'd be pretty cool one day for you to lead a Chinese community 0:59:54.899,0:59:59.644 -- GTC Community --- Google Hangout On Air, your Chinese is really impressive. 0:59:59.644,1:00:01.941 As a native speaker I can say that.[br](EB overlaps - incomprehensible) 1:00:01.941,1:00:04.776 (Bildner) Yes, that would be fun with me and Kuo co-partners. 1:00:04.776,1:00:08.950 There's another question about Chinese, I think this is a broader question about -- 1:00:08.951,1:00:13.561 the question is, you know, obviously there are different dialects of Chinese, 1:00:13.561,1:00:17.851 there's Cantonese, there is, you know, traditional characters and simplified characters, 1:00:17.851,1:00:22.127 slightly different usages in, say, Taiwan and Mainland: how do we deal with that? 1:00:22.127,1:00:24.457 I think there's a broader question of, you know, 1:00:24.457,1:00:26.754 there is Brazilian Portuguese and there is European Portuguese, you know, 1:00:26.754,1:00:29.177 what kind of Spanish are we accepting on the platform? 1:00:29.587,1:00:34.483 These are all great questions and these are things that we'll kind of need to work out on a case-by-case basis. 1:00:35.044,1:00:38.707 You know, we'll talk about this more in our forums but, you know, 1:00:38.717,1:00:40.065 we think that it makes sense 1:00:40.065,1:00:44.663 to have separate languages for European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese, for instance, 1:00:44.663,1:00:49.441 that it'll just be a clearer and cleaner experience for both students and translators 1:00:50.062,1:00:53.542 and certainly, there are things that can be done 1:00:53.552,1:00:58.789 in converting from Simplified Chinese to Traditional Chinese, programmatically, 1:00:59.268,1:01:01.902 but, you know, that's something that we'll need to consider as well. 1:01:01.902,1:01:07.144 So, great question from Wah, thank you for asking it, and the answer is that 1:01:07.153,1:01:09.684 we'll need to work this out on a case-by-case basis. 1:01:11.435,1:01:14.840 Let's see if there's any really quick questions that we can answer. 1:01:20.554,1:01:25.104 I think, because we're at 9 o'clock and I want to be respectful of everyone's time, 1:01:25.104,1:01:28.879 and so I think we should probably wrap this up and again, 1:01:28.879,1:01:34.354 we'll look through the questions that are outstanding and I'll make sure that any, kind of fine ones (check) 1:01:34.354,1:01:37.458 are answered in the forums or in other channels. 1:01:38.051,1:01:40.670 For my part, I just want to thank everyone for being here today. 1:01:40.670,1:01:46.407 I know it's probably crazy time zones, some of you are turning in at, you know, 11 p.m., 1:01:46.407,1:01:53.986 and others at 3 a.m., and ......................... (check) sometimes. 1:01:54.596,1:01:58.944 But we're really, really grateful for everyone being here and spending the time with us, 1:01:58.944,1:02:02.019 asking great questions, and for all your work. 1:02:02.476,1:02:07.673 Thanks for inviting Daphne and for the rest of the time i'll share with you, Sébastien, 1:02:07.682,1:02:11.454 are there any final words you wanted to add as well. 1:02:11.871,1:02:18.702 (Kuo) Yeah, I mean, you know, everyday I am super-impressed with the dedication 1:02:18.702,1:02:23.406 from both Coursera learners and our GTC members. 1:02:24.435,1:02:32.392 You know, as a person who works in localization, languages has always been my passion, like, 1:02:32.392,1:02:33.712 since I was a little kid. 1:02:33.712,1:02:36.794 I would go to public libraries and take out, like phrasebooks, 1:02:36.794,1:02:40.685 just to sort of, like, look at these weird words and try to understand what they mean. 1:02:40.685,1:02:44.828 And I think one of the most gratifying things about building out a community like this 1:02:44.828,1:02:50.063 is that, you know, reading through all your responses, especially to that question on the application 1:02:50.063,1:02:51.586 that's like (check): "Why do I want to translate?" 1:02:52.350,1:02:58.271 you know, I see that there are so many people like me, like you, that are really -- 1:02:58.756,1:03:05.021 that not only believe in Coursera's mission of increasing the accessibility of education 1:03:05.021,1:03:10.323 but also, really believe in the value of translation and community building. 1:03:10.323,1:03:15.103 And so, I just want to let you guys know that Eli and I are committed 1:03:15.103,1:03:24.698 to sort of -- to build out a program that not only lets you shine and lets you contribute back to Coursera, 1:03:25.934,1:03:34.514 but also, you know, take that work and, you know, use it to make other Coursera learners 1:03:35.807,1:03:40.689 more enabled to access our really great content. So, thank you. 1:03:40.690,1:03:45.971 (Eli Bildner) Okay, well, as we say, thank you, gracias, спасибо, actually we could go on, 1:03:45.971,1:03:49.553 but we really appreciate everyone being here, and we'll see you, see you out. 1:03:49.935,1:03:52.456 (Kuo) Definitely. Thanks.