User:OberMegaTrans/SS2016
Summer semester 2016[edit]
This page will be our central and main workspace for the entire semester. It should be linked to your userpage and vice versa. And it would probably be a good idea to have it bookmarked on whatever device you normally use to do this work.
Here, briefly, the HW to be done by 12 May:
- Register on ILIAS.
- When you get the email, complete the peer-review tasks.
- Set up your own userpage.
- Put at least three suggestions on it.
- Be prepared to present your userpage & suggestions.
Suggestions[edit]
Universitätsbibliothek Freiburg
Rathaus (Freiburg im Breisgau)
Flüchtlingspolitik (Deutschland)
List of members[edit]
Articles[edit]
Final comments[edit]
It is interesting to learn how Wikipedia works and how well it is organised/how quickly articles are edited and corrected by Wikipedians. We can see now that Wikipedia is a much more reliable source than its reputation suggests, although it is perhaps still susceptible to people who have an agenda. Nevertheless, vandalism is rarely left on the site for long- in fact sometimes users can be very quick to find faults with our pages. In future it would be better to create draft pages first, before moving them online, as well as creating a checklist for the talk page to make other Wikipedians more aware of the project we are undertaking.
The work we do on the course remains relevant due to the immediacy of Wikipedia: it is nice to see our work published on the website for people to learn from - the work we are doing feels useful. Although it sometimes takes longer to produce translations than it would in a 'paper' form, it feels worth it as we care more about our own chosen texts. Their is also more motivation to produce a higher quality translation due to the knowledge that it will be published online.
The make-up of the class has allowed us to work in smaller groups of people that always included both German native speakers and English native speakers. This has improved the quality of our translations and allowed us to learn from each other. Alternating our native speakers between the sections to be edited means that all German students receive feedback from an English native speaker.
When translating Wikipedia articles the problem often arises where we need to decide whether or not to translate a word/phrase or whether to leave it in the original German. Culturally specific items can usually be left in the original German with a short explanation in English, whereas more general concepts should be translated.
In terms of resources, it can be useful to use the links in the article we are translating to look at the German Wikipedia pages and to see how German native speakers have defined certain concepts which we can then use to decide how to define a concept in English. This can often be more useful than using online dictionaries. Thesauri are also very useful for translation.
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Are there any kinds of articles we would recommend/not recommend for future courses? Generally, articles such as "Flüchtlingspolitik" seem to be more difficult to translate than, e.g., "Currywurst", but translating them is also more rewarding. Future students should be warned that translating such articles could potentially be very difficult, but they should not be discouraged completely. Starting with an easier article is probably a good idea (like "Currywurst"), just to get used to the whole idea of editing Wikipedia and translating Wikipedia articles. Also: Maybe choose articles which are of interest to a general audience. We should create links to our translated articles in other articles, e.g. Otto Krayer, although we have to keep in mind that Wikipedia articles tend to grow naturally over time (other people add things/links etc.). Larger articles should not be split up between two semesters, because it is unfair to the group in the second semester and to Erasmus students who only stay in Freiburg for one semester. Another idea: Keep translating one long article (like "Geschichte der Stadt Freiburg") for a longer period of time, e.g. 3-4 weeks?
Facebook seems to have been a good platform for staying in touch with other members of the translation groups. It might be problematic for people who are not on Facebook. Alternative: These people could set up a Facebook account just for the class/project - they would not have to share any kind of sensitive information on this account. BUT: Not an ideal solution and probably not accepted by everyone. Having a Facebook group would be a helpful idea both for the individual translation groups and the whole class. Would there be a way of using ILIAS to set up something that is basically like Facebook? (Moodle??) Still, Facebook would be more useful, because people usually check Facebook more regularly than ILIAS. Final thought: Facebook (or other social media channels like WhatsApp) should be used rather for the individual translation groups and not for the whole class. Should there be a central platform for everyone or not??
It would be nice if some people in this class would remain active users of Wikipedia and do more editing/translating. After last week we all have bragging rights - all of us have actually set up a full Wikipedia article! :) A word of warning: Translating a Wikipedia article from English to German is even more dangerous, because German Wikipedians are very serious about it and less diplomatic than the English users!
Be kind to the Aberdonian students, because their translating skills English-German are probably not as good as the German students' translating skills German-English.
Wikipedia should be used in academia more frequently than it is used right now.
None of us should feel uncomfortable editing or adding something on Wikipedia now - we have actually produced something useful and none of it has been deleted (so far).
Generally: Big thank you to the English native speakers for improving our translations!