Software translation (Gnome)

Gnome and I

2012-03-06T03:16:00.003-08:00

The first day I was told that I was awarded Gnome internship I knew that my life will never be the same again in the career field that I chose to pursue. On the 24 of February 2012 I got recognition from Translate.org.za for being one of the people who showed initiative and willingness in developing their mother tongue language, mentioning that I have become the second South African woman to be awarded a GNOME internship. Being a Gnome Intern also granted me an opportunity to have my career profile reviewed on the UNISA Radio Station on the 24^th of February 2012. The importance of having Gnome apps available in the IsiXhosa language, for me it is to share exciting and interesting news to the public. I can say so far the journey with Gnome has been bliss and exciting all the way. Thank you Gnome!

My progress so far

2012-03-06T02:50:00.000-08:00

I have worked in the following files:

1. Feb. 21, 2012 gnome-session - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translating

2. 2012-02-27T10:53:10Feb. 27, 2012 gedit - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated

3. 2012-02-27T10:55:46Feb. 27, 2012 gnome-shell - master - UI translations - Xhosa To Review

4. 2012-03-01T10:30:29March 1, 2012 gnome-bluetooth - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated

5. 2012-03-01T10:34:14March 1, 2012 gnome-power-manager - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated

6. 2012-03-01T10:35:48March 1, 2012 gnome-user-share - master - UI translations - Xhosa Proofreading

7. 2012-03-01T10:51:42March 1, 2012 gnome-backgrounds - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated

I am about to finish translating Totem and Caribou and I am still continuaing with my transations.

Week 6-17 February

2012-02-17T15:45:00.000-08:00

The whole of last week we worked on terminology and the this week I continued with some translation. It went all well besides the testing of help file that is still on hold due to my struggle to run a successful script on Terminal but I am still working on that.

Yesterday	cheese - master - User Guide - Xhosa	Translating
Yesterday	gnome-power-manager - master - UI translations - Xhosa	Translated
Yesterday	gnome-user-share - master - UI translations - Xhosa	Proofreading

The Next coming week I am planning to finish the files I have reserved for translation.

The love of work overcomes all problems

2012-01-31T07:38:00.000-08:00

I do not want to lie I had some few problems with my computer since the Gnome internship. For instance the other day I was working and I experienced power failure. When I had to open my computer it showed that I must repair system files.I panicked a bit but I thought to myself I am not the first person to experience this problem. I Googled the answer in my BlackBerry mobile device.

I found the answer that I should type:

“blkid followed by this command: fsck -y /dev/sda2 and then type exit”.

It worked and I got back to my work.

The conclusion is, no matter what problem I can face the love of my work in Localization (Gnome Software translation) has gave me an inspiration that there is no problem that cannot be fixed. I am still continuing with my work, thirsty to learn more and excited to see more results.

Again I say the love of work overcomes all problems!

Planning week 30-Jan to 3rd February 2012

2012-01-31T02:55:00.000-08:00

This week I will be focusing on documentation (help file). I will focus on the help files on Mallard Format. Help files of the files I have already translated.

I will focus on one document at a time cause leaving a file half way and jump to another one does not help.

The one file that I am about to finish with its software translated is Cheese which I reserved earl yer this month although I was working with some other files.

cheese master

Cheese is a program to take pictures and videos. It has fun effects and nice view of photo stream at the side.

Weeks 09 Jan- 20th Jan

2012-01-20T14:30:00.000-08:00

What I did in past weeks

I have done some document translation and they are quite tricky. It is the reason that my pace tend to drop a little bit. For now I have downloaded a help file for Cheese and Gnome-control. The other document is from Damned Lies website with general information about the Open source License.

I have worked on the following files:
Jan. 9, 2012 gnome-documents - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Jan. 9, 2012 gnome-video-effects - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translating
Jan. 10, 2012 gnome-contacts - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Jan. 11, 2012 alacarte - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Jan. 11, 2012 caribou - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translating
Jan. 12, 2012 gnome-shell - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Jan. 13, 2012 gnome-backgrounds - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Jan. 17, 2012 gnome-font-viewer - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Jan. 17, 2012 gnome-screenshot - master - UI translations - Xhosa To Review
Jan. 17, 2012 gnome-screensaver - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Jan. 18, 2012 gnome-power-manager - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translating
Yesterday gnome-user-share - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translating

- My plans for the next week
My plan for next week is to download more po files and translate them.
Proofreading

- Things that I am waiting for that keeps a task from completing

Proof reading and testing can takes time before I upload the po file in the Damned Lies website.
Correcting work also take some time.

First week in 2012. Complements of the New Year...

2012-01-06T10:57:00.000-08:00

What I did in the week

I have worked on the following files:
Jan. 3, 2012 gnome-bluetooth - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Jan. 4, 2012 gnome-search-tool - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Jan. 4, 2012 gnome-control-center - master - User Guide - Xhosa Translating
Yesterday cheese - master - User Guide - Xhosa Translating
Yesterday brasero - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translating
Today gnome-desktop - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated

- My plans for the next week:

- Review of existing translations
- Documentation translation

- My plan for next week is to download more po files and translate them.

Is to market my work more.

- Things that you are waiting for that keeps a task from completing
The words that are not familiar with can take longer to find.
Long files takes more time to translate
Proofread and correcting can also take longer

week 15-30th December 2011

2012-01-02T20:19:00.000-08:00

What I did in past weeks

I have worked on the following files:
Dec. 15, 2011 gnome-menus - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Dec. 16, 2011 gnome-system-monitor - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Dec. 19, 2011 gnome-shell - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Dec. 20, 2011 gnome-screensaver - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Dec. 20, 2011 gnome-backgrounds - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Dec. 22, 2011 gnome-bluetooth - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translating
Dec. 29, 2011 gnome-control-center - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translating
Dec. 30, 2011 gedit - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated

- My plans for the next week

My plan for next week is to download more po files and translate them.
Proof read
Market the work I am doing

- Things that I am waiting for that keeps a task from completing
I need to look-up for words that I am not familiar with.
Proof reading and testing can takes time before I upload the po file in the Damned Lies website.

Week of 12-14

2012-01-02T20:07:00.000-08:00

What I did in the week

I have worked on the following files:
Dec. 12, 2011 gnome-shell - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Dec. 13, 2011 gnome-screenshot - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Dec. 13, 2011 gnome-desktop - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translating
Dec. 13, 2011 gnome-backgrounds - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translating
Dec. 14, 2011 empathy - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Dec. 14, 2011 gnome-screensaver - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translating
Dec. 14, 2011 gnome-terminal - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Dec. 14, 2011 gedit - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translating
Yesterday gnome-menus - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated
Today gnome-system-monitor - master - UI translations - Xhosa Translated

- My plans for the next week

My plan for next week is to download more po files and translate them.

Is to market my work more

- Things that you are waiting for that keeps a task from completing
The words that are not familiar with can take longer to find.
Long files takes more time

My first weeks

2011-12-29T04:23:00.000-08:00

I started my week so fine I even forgot that on Friday it was a public holiday I realised afterwards. The second week came and was the week of Christmas Eve and Christmas. It was also fine although it was kinder disturbing cause everybody was excited and preparing for Christmas. I have not experienced any difficulties though since I have already started with translating some po file. My mentor is helping me to correct mistakes there and there and making sure I reach my goals. When it comes drawing goals I set them too high but I am working on that. I guess the say that says “Aim to the sky and you'll fall upon the stars” became kinder really when it comes to my goals. I am still enjoying my work so far. The only hiccups I had so far was a power failure problems in some days but so far everything is fine.

What it means to me to be an OPW intern?

2011-11-28T11:19:00.000-08:00

It was on a Wednesday morning. I had just woke up wondering what the day will bring for me. I was just browsing internet in my computer haven't checked my emails. I received a text message via Empathy ( One of the Gnome's programs) that I was accepted as one of the interns starting for 2011 Dec. I was so excited! I could not contain the joy I had. Started jumping and Dancing. I was excited that I was getting this opportunity, let alone that I was now a second woman ever in history in South Africa to be accepted for this internship. That part only was making me more joyous. I am happy to know that with my contribution now the software will be available in IsiXhosa and appreciate the opportunity they give me to learn. I also thankful that they have granted me an opportunity to write on my Curriculum Vitae that I have an experience in translating software.

Beautiful joy from the results

2011-11-10T12:47:00.000-08:00

The commands I have typed in Terminal

Output after typing the commands in Terminal

Every-time I translate, one thing I always look forward to is to test my work. Just to see a software that was in English language changing into IsiXhosa language it make me feel great. Maybe great is an under-statement it make me feel like I can create. One small change makes me feel like I can bring about a great change in the world. I used to see Friedel running terminal to test software and I would think wow! I wonder how is he doing that. Now I can do that on my own (Thanks to Friedel). I am so happy, It's like these days me and terminal are friends. I just give a command and it does the Job for me. Wow what a joy!

Programmes I enjoy using

2011-10-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

The programmes I enjoy are: Empathy, games and Cheese. With empathy I like the fact that you can chat with different people from different groups using one program. You can chat with people who are using Yahoo, Google talk, Facebook, Gnome groups and other.

Cheese is the program to take pictures and videos. I has different exciting animinations/ effects. It is one of the programmes I am planning to translate soon.

I enjoy using programs in my language for example there is a Gnome game I like to play. It is available in English but I chose to view all the programmes in my language if they are translated. As you see in this picture it was written in English before but because it was translated in isiXhosa the language in the toolbar has changed.

The love of my language Xhosa

2011-10-06T13:39:00.000-07:00

My dream is to create and uphold a multilingual environment in which every citizen can live a functional life in his/her language. I will start with my language isiXhosa because charity begins at home. My vision is to help keep my language alive and progressing so that it can be carried on to the next generation. I believe language is not only for communicating with each other but it also carries a rich culture in it. If you do not know your language it is very rear to know your culture. The new South African constitutional rule specifies that there are eleven official languages in South Africa, it encouraged me to stand in the gap for my language and see it my mandate to carry it through. The kinds of resources that I want to see them available in IsiXhosa are software, books and research papers. With my previous experienced gained I will make use of technical aspect to share my knowledge. I have started working towards that by being a volunteer to translate Gnome’s software. I am so passionate about my language that when ever I open my computer I want to see it , and read it. Although in the picture above not everything is translated to my language (Xhosa), that brings a challenge to me to make it my duty to translate it. Having been introduced to Linux and Gnome by Friedel I have seen my dream becoming reality. I also realised that it is my responsibility to help localise software and make it available in my language. Change begins with you!

Linux

2011-10-06T12:32:00.000-07:00

I was introduced to Linux the first day I started working at translate.org as an IsiXhosa Language Practitioner. I found it user friendly. I learnt about Ubuntu but later on Fedora was installed in my computer. With Linux it easier to download programmes and to get an access to internet. I did not have internet access but since I used Linux it was easy to connect on the internet using my phone Samsung (Star) that is Mobile broadband.

I was also introduced by Friedel Wolff to Gnome. I got interested in translating some of the programmes to IsiXhosa. I started with Eye of Gmone using Virtaal to translate. I got lot of suggestions because there are people who have worked on Xhosa translations before although they are no longer active.

I find it exciting to use my computer and programmes because now I can get them in my language (Xhosa) and I can also make changes through my translations. I would love to see many Xhosa's using their computers in isiXhosa.