Getting a science article in a foreign language translated?

[Genecks]

Let's say I find a science article that is written in a foreign language. How do I go about getting it translated to a decent amount?

 

I found one recently that involved the metabolism of puffer fish in relation to TTX. I am not adept in the language it was written in, so I could not read it.

 

I am assuming there would be difficulties with using a simple online translator. Perhaps there would be jargon that would not easily translate, and perhaps key details would not be brought out from such an electronic translator.

 

Furthermore, I'm assuming that even a native in the language might not be able to bring out all of the details, unless he or she has a general background in science and can slightly grasp what kind of things the article is talking about.

 

So, has anyone run into such a situation?

How does a person go about getting a science article translated?

[iNow]

It's rough, but you might try google translator:

 

http://translate.google.com

[Genecks]

Thank you for replying, iNow.

I would like to state that I understand there are electronic translators and online translators (non-human).

 

One of the main things about the article I'm talking about is that it couldn't be easily translated, as the language did not use characters from the English alphabet or a variant of the Roman system. If I remember correctly, the ability to copy and paste characters into an electronic translator was not possible. Perhaps some OCR program would have helped, but I doubt it could have done a decent job.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

The American Translator's Association may be helpful. You can also look around for a translation agency, which basically acts as a middleman by finding a translator who specializes in the appropriate subjects for you and such.

 

If you need any advice finding a translation agency, well, my mom's a professional translator and she knows most of 'em, so just ask

[ajb]

As Cap'n says, you could pay for a professional translation agency or pick up a scientific foreign-English dictionary. Such things do exist.

 

A friend of mine managed to translate a French paper into English, well enough to understand what was going on. However, he does has basic knowledge of French. What was problematic for him were some technical words that do not translate directly to the English equivalent.

[michel123456]

I found one recently that involved the metabolism of puffer fish in relation to TTX. I am not adept in the language it was written in, so I could not read it.

 

What language?

 

Most of the times you are just scr...

Large embassies have translations departments, some have scientific department. But it is a painful procedure.

Sometimes, the author of the paper has already made a translation in english. Go to the source & try to reach him. Russians may answer, and Chinese. German & French are usually too proud to go into such an humiliation (translating).

Edited January 2, 2010 by michel123456

[DrP]

I had this problem with papers written in German. I know a little (and I mean VERY little) so I pasted it into google translate. The translation was pretty rubbish - especially the scientific words, but it gave me a Jist. Then, with the bits I had no idea about, I phoned some guy in Germany who works for one of our suppliers and asked him the meaning of some of the words and sentences I did not understand. He was a great help.

[Rickdog]

Dear friends, I´m new in this nice forum, but in others where I´ve participated before, the same problem usually happens in all kinds of language translations. I would suggest you to use online translators only as a basic translation in order to know what it is all about in general terms, but not to rely completely on it since there are many words that have many different translations (all correct, btw ), and you should also consider the time (past, present or future) sense of the sentence and word, and the correct order by which you should make the translation of words. On-line translators always fail in these aspects. In the case of scientific literature it`s most difficult, since there is lots of technical terms, that if you are not aware of their significance, you`ll only understand part of the work, or most gravely, completely the opposite or a wrong meaning of things, which can affect deeply your future conclussions on the subject.

 

Together with the on-line translator, seek for help with someone who also has the tech knowledge of the area of the study, and that also has knowledge of the language, from which you want to get the refered article.

 

:-)

[zule]

There are translators specialized in a scientific field. I have friends who work translating scientific papers. But I think it is too expensive to get a paper translated only for reading it, they work mainly for companies which need the information of its products translated for sales purposes.