Subject: Re: [lojban] senva

From: Jay F Kominek <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2002 09:09:21 -0600

On Mon, Jul 29, 2002 at 04:56:09PM +0200, G. Dyke wrote:
> > Do you think it's possible to get a non-lojbanist to help you with the
> > gismu translation? I was thinking of paying someone here for a few hours
> > to work on it. (As yet I don't have a very specific person in mind).
> 
> For a start, *I* charge SFr30.- (about US$20.-) an hour/page for
> translation. I'm not *really* willing to pay anyone that amount for
> something which I'll probably have to correct - and possibly re-translate -
> myself.
> 
> I've so far done something like 15 hours resulting in all the keywords (but
> one or two) and just over a quarter of the definitions. - that's one hell of
> a lot of money for payed translation.

Having already had the thought John did, I went and looked into the cost
of professional translation. Most places seem to charge by the word. So
I counted the words in the gismu list, very roughly. It'd probably run
$20k to $25k US to get it 'professionally' translated.

A slightly better idea would be to go to a local, large university which
teaches a number of languages, and put up signs offering to pay students
minimum wage for doing it. (While letting them work at home, of course.)
To ensure quality, one could require a letter of reccomendation from one
of their professors. And hopefully at that sort of rate, more than one
student could be hired per language, and their results compared, etc.
(Or divide the gismu list up amongst them, with a bit of overlap inbetween
each, so you can compare between them all and identify ones who weren't
producing content in line with the rest.)

Not the sort of thing which is likely to be implemented, but maybe if
someone has a bit too much money on their hands, they might keep it in
mind.

(The cheapest alternative, of course, would be to simply attract more
speakers, in the hopes of netting some bilingual ones willing to do
translation.)

-- 
Jay Kominek <[email-masked]>
The NSA is now hiring. Send your resume to
Fort Meade, or speak into the thermostat.