# Site/Blog Translation Help



## JoshEllsworth (Dec 14, 2005)

I'm looking to offer a Spanish version of the articles that I post in my blog. At first I think I would start with a select few and then progress from there. 

Here are the issues I am facing, any insight is appreciated.

The ideal situation would be to offer an easy solution where a user could click a tab that would take them to a Spanish version of the entire site. Is this possible? I can't find a way through wordpress.

The second option would be to create duplicate articles for each post, a spanish and english version, where readers can click on their preference.

Another option would be to create an entire different site for this.

Any way that I choose leads me to my next dilemma....I need the content translated,unfortunately, I don't speak Spanish. So, are there any sites or services that anyone would recommend to translate articles on a semi-daily basis? I found this site: http://ets.freetranslation.com/ I could buy a membership there or use their free translation tool, but here is there claim: 
"This free translation is ideal for instant, draft-quality results. It is a "gisted" translation, providing a basic understanding of the original text."

Do any of you Spanish speaking folks think this would be acceptable?


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

had the same problem a while back.
you may need to pay someone that is fluent read/write in both languages.


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## pauseisabove (Dec 19, 2006)

Depends on the investment you are wanting to make? Ideally the best thing would be to hire a contract bilingual translator. If not I would go here

Translation Experts - Spanish translation French translation German translation translate translator dictionary

Good luck


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## prometheus (Oct 19, 2006)

JoshEllsworth said:


> "This free translation is ideal for instant, draft-quality results. It is a "gisted" translation, providing a basic understanding of the original text."
> 
> Do any of you Spanish speaking folks think this would be acceptable?


I worked in South Florida for a company where we did ads in English and Spanish. It is not acceptable. There is even a lot of differences between the different Spanish communities (Cuban, Puerto Rican, Mexicn, etc.) that can sometimes cause issues. I believe professional translators try to keep it neutral. Also, my wife is Brazilian and I have used Babelfish (http://world.altavista.com/tr) to translate some things that end up very amusing, but sometimes unintelligible.  Some of it has to do with words in english that have many meanings. So I wouldn't go with a computerised thing, but a human one if possible. Strike up a friendship with someone and see if they will do it for you.


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

prometheus said:


> I worked in South Florida for a company where we did ads in English and Spanish. It is not acceptable. There is even a lot of differences between the different Spanish communities (Cuban, Puerto Rican, Mexicn, etc.) that can sometimes cause issues. I believe professional translators try to keep it neutral. Also, my wife is Brazilian and I have used Babelfish (AltaVista - Babel Fish Translation) to translate some things that end up very amusing, but sometimes unintelligible.  Some of it has to do with words in english that have many meanings. So I wouldn't go with a computerised thing, but a human one if possible. Strike up a friendship with someone and see if they will do it for you.


yeah, Robert is right.
From my experience with some sites where they find you a translator, you go thru the whole sign up schmeale and end up no where. Well, it may work out but in my case i did not have the time to wait.

How i found the translators were by accident. I was dealing with a bilingual lawyer and his assistant also bilingual volunteered to do the work. Bonus! killed 2 birds with one stone in my situation.


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

Hi Josh,

This article might help:

Going Bilingual in WordPress, from Poplar ProductivityWare Articles


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## JoshEllsworth (Dec 14, 2005)

Thanks for all of the input. It looks like I'll be looking for some customer volunteers as translators It's nice to know that it is an option in wordpress.


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

JoshEllsworth said:


> Do any of you Spanish speaking folks think this would be acceptable?


I'm not a Spanish speaker, but I doubt it. Just grab some Spanish text and put it through a Spanish -> English translator to see what you'd be putting people through. Then consider that English has more double meanings than most languages, so the results will likely be even worse.

The free translations are good for muddling through some sites, and my partner has used them successfully to trade with people on eBay without a shared language, but those examples are a lot simpler really.

It's a good thing to do, but unfortunately it's probably not going to be easy/cheap (possibly a "pick one" scenario).


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

Josh, I'm just curious - Why Spanish?


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## JoshEllsworth (Dec 14, 2005)

Jasonda said:


> Josh, I'm just curious - Why Spanish?


Well thats just a starting point. I'd of course like to offer it in seven languages, but Spanish seems to be the dominant request. I go to about 10-15 shows a year and about 6 of them are in highly populated Spanish speaking areas (ie. Southern California, Texas and Florida). So during and after the shows, I would like to have somewhere to point folks that I can't conversate with effectively.


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

Ah.. I see.  I was thinking from the perspective of the blog (worldwide audience) but from that point of view it makes a lot more sense.


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