DeepL Traditional Chinese support review

My favorite online translator, DeepL, just added support for Traditional Chinese. As an amateur translator from English to Chinese, I do translations for the Inkscape interface and their website, so I thought I'd make a review of the translation quality, and how it compares to Google Translate, a rival translation service. Just for fun, I'll throw in LibreTranslate into the mix to see where it's at.

Inkscape's 20th Anniversary

Let's start with one of the articles I recently translated into Chinese, Inkscape's 20th Anniversary. The translations weren't influenced by any translator program, and was my honest attempt to make the article understandable in Traditional Chinese. I'll start by comparing the first few paragraphs.

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Original

On November 18, 2023, the Inkscape project celebrated its 20th anniversary.

The anniversary celebration was an online get-together of Inkscape users and contributors.

This was an initiative by the Vectors team and the intention was to bring Inkscape users and contributors together to celebrate 20 years of Inkscape.

Inkscape is used by people around the world. To accommodate that, two sessions were organized in different time zones. The first session was scheduled at 12:00 UTC for folks from regions like Eastern North America, Europe, India, & Indonesia. The second session started at 18:00 UTC for other regions, including Oceania.

The attendees were invited to share their approximate location in the world so that we could “map” the Inkscape community that came together to celebrate the anniversary. The interactive map can be viewed online. It is a beautiful souvenir of Inkscape’s global reach.

Manual translation

在 2023 年 11 月 18 日，Inkscape 專案舉辦了 20 週年的慶祝大會。Inkscape 在線上聚集了使用者與貢獻者一同慶祝。本活動由行銷組（Vectors）發起，用意是讓 Inkscape 使用者與貢獻者共聚一堂，一起慶祝 Inkscape 度過的 20 個年頭。

因為 Inkscape 的使用者來自全世界，為了配合所有人的時區，總共有兩場聚集，分別針對不同的時區。第一場的時間是 12:00 UTC，主要配合來自美東、歐洲、印度與印尼的參與者。第二場座落在 18:00 UTC，以配合其他時區的參與者，包括大洋洲。

我們邀請了所有與會者們分享自己的大略位置，讓我們能將來參與盛會的 Inkscape 社群所在位置標示在地圖上。您可以在線上瀏覽與會者的互動式地圖，以資紀念 Inkscape 在國際上影響力擴及的範圍。

Deepl translation

2023 年 11 月 18 日，Inkscape 計畫慶祝成立 20 週年。

週年慶典是 Inkscape 使用者和貢獻者的線上聚會。

這是由 Vectors 團隊發起的，目的是讓 Inkscape 使用者和貢獻者一起慶祝 Inkscape 20 周年。

世界各地的人都在使用 Inkscape。為了滿足這個需求，我們在不同的時區舉辦了兩場會議。第一場會議安排在 12:00 UTC，來自北美東部、歐洲、印度和印尼等地區的朋友可以參加。第二場會議於 18:00 UTC 開始，對象為其他地區，包括大洋洲。

我們邀請與會者分享他們在世界上的大約位置，這樣我們就可以「映射」出一起慶祝週年的 Inkscape 社群。互動地圖可以在網路上瀏覽。這是 Inkscape 覆蓋全球的美麗紀念品。

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Let's break down the two different translations:

• For the first three paragraphs, I condensed them into one for better readability, and DeepL kept them separate. This is an inherent deficit of the current versions of translation software (inability to reason across paragraphs), but by keeping the paragraphs separate, DeepL's translation retains the slight poetic feeling of the original English prose.
• In my translation I translated the term "celebration" to 慶祝大會, but the term DeepL used, 慶典, is a better fit, and would prevent the overuse of "慶祝"。
• My version of "to celebrate 20 years of Inkscape" has some embellishments (20 個年頭), while DeepL translated it straightforwardly.
• The way DeepL dealt with time (安排在, 於 ... 開始) is better than mine (時間是, 座落在). Also in retrospective, 座落在 should only refer to locations, not time.
• DeepL's translation of the word "map" with quotes is suboptimal (「映射」), but counters with a better translation of "It is a beautiful souvenir of Inkscape’s global reach". (I failed to translate the word "souvenir", and instead opted for a rephrasing, writing "to commemorate" instead of "it is a souvenir".)

From this comparison, it's clear that DeepL has a firm grasp of the usage of Traditional Chinese terms, and correctly discerned the terms 使用者, 線上, 印尼, 瀏覽 as opposed to their Simplified Chinese counterparts 用戶, 在線, 印度尼西亞 and 查看. Let's compare that to the Google translation:

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Google translation

2023 年 11 月 18 日，Inkscape 計畫慶祝了 20 週年。

週年慶典是 Inkscape 用戶和貢獻者的線上聚會。

這是 Vectors 團隊的一項舉措，目的是將 Inkscape 用戶和貢獻者聚集在一起慶祝 Inkscape 20 週年。

Inkscape 被世界各地的人們使用。為了適應這一點，在不同時區組織了兩次會議。第一場會議安排在世界標準時間 12:00，面向來自北美東部、歐洲、印度和印尼等地區的人們。第二場會議於世界標準時間 18:00 開始，其他地區包括大洋洲。

與會者被邀請分享他們在世界上的大致位置，以便我們可以「繪製」聚集在一起慶祝週年紀念日的 Inkscape 社區。互動式地圖可以線上查看。這是 Inkscape 全球影響力的精美紀念品。

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Google has upped their game of using localized terms instead of stuffing terms from Simplified Chinese, but they still missed 用戶 (使用者) and 查看 (瀏覽). Which isn't too bad, as those terms originated from Simp. Chi. are not uncommon in the modern corpse of Traditional Chinese.

However, compared to DeepL, it's pretty clear that Google Translate has a long way to go to improve the fluency of their prose. Compare these two:

• Inkscape 被世界各地的人們使用。為了適應這一點，在不同時區組織了兩次會議。(Google)
• 世界各地的人都在使用 Inkscape。為了滿足這個需求，我們在不同的時區舉辦了兩場會議。(DeepL)
  

To Traditional Chinese readers, both are understandable, but the bottom one feels more like it's written by a native speaker, while the Google one has the word-by-word pedantry we generally want to avoid when translating.

After playing around with the translations DeepL provides, I'm confident to say that it's ready for daily translation use, and can give translations that feels native enough without any edits. With minor edits and embellishment additions, a "OK" translation could be done much faster than translating entirely by hand.

With DeepL's help, I've translated another article from the Inkscape news archive, Inkscape at 21 is growing up and getting organized, and you can read my translation here. Starting from the title — 21 歲的 Inkscape 成長有序 — DeepL gave a translation better than I could ever think of (at least at my current level).

Now that you've read to this part of the article, here's the promised LibreTranslate one:

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LibreTranslate translation

在2023年11月18日,

有相當多的相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相相相關相相關相關相關相相相相相關相相相相關相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相

也想把Inkscape使用者與出資者相聚一堂以慶祝Inkscape20年。

"相克"被世界各地的人所使用. 有兩次相關相關相關相關地區相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相關相相關相關相關相相關相關相相相關相相相相相關相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相 第一個會議安排在UTC中午12:00, 第 二 部 分

相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相相當相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相 互動地圖可以被網路取用 。 相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相當相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相相.

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Fun times.

-- ltlnx 2024-11-29

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