# Can I pay to have some translation done?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-pay-to-have-some-translation-done/47334
**Category:** Translations
**Created:** [14 Luglio 2016, 9:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-pay-to-have-some-translation-done/47334 "2016-07-14T21:07:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@npflood](https://meta.discourse.org/u/npflood)
#### Post date: [14 Luglio 2016, 9:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-pay-to-have-some-translation-done/47334/1 "2016-07-14T21:07:48Z")
###Background:
Our nonprofit organization is about to begin using Discourse as part of our multi-lingual membership community. Our site and related applications currently support 10 languages, and we like to have new functions mostly translated before rolling them out to our users.
###My Problem:
Looking at the currently supported languages, and the great work being done in Transifex, I’m seeing a need for some serious work in a few of the languages we’d like to support.
**These are the languages that are currently incomplete that we need to have translated before we launch:**
- Myanmar (Burmese)
- Thai
- Khmer
- Indonesian
- Swahili (Kiswahili)
###A Solution?
I **might** be able to find some money to invest in translating the _consumer_ views into a few additional languages, but probably couldn’t justify paying for the administrative views. (_Grants would cover one but not the other._)
**Before I move forward** I want to be sure that I’m not duplicating someone else’s work, and that I’m not wasting money.
- What do I need to know before I hire some of our translators to do the work?
- Are there any gotchas I need to be aware of before I start sending the YAML files out?
I’m looking for some people with experience translating Discourse to weigh in 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [14 Luglio 2016, 9:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-pay-to-have-some-translation-done/47334/2 "2016-07-14T21:15:52Z")
> [@npflood](#):
>
> Are there any gotchas I need to be aware of before I start sending the YAML files out?
They should translate on Transifex.
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### Author:  [@npflood](https://meta.discourse.org/u/npflood)
#### Post date: [14 Luglio 2016, 9:19pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-pay-to-have-some-translation-done/47334/3 "2016-07-14T21:19:13Z")
@Falco
All of the work would be put into Transifex, but probably by me. It’s hard enough finding Burmese translators that work in unicode, let alone ones that would want to learn a whole new system just to work for us. I’d be sending out the Yaml files and then uploading them into Transifex. I would also provide them with the glossary.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [14 Luglio 2016, 9:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-pay-to-have-some-translation-done/47334/4 "2016-07-14T21:42:12Z")
If you can sponsor the effort, that’s great! As @falco noted the work will need to be entered in Transifex, e.g.
> **[Translating Discourse with Transifex](https://blog.discourse.org/2014/05/translating-discourse-with-transifex/)**
>
> In Localizing Discourse, I noted that we leveraged the mature, built in localization support in Rails to make it easier to translate Discourse into your preferred language. To better support large scale translations for Discourse, we’re now using a...
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### Author:  [@gerhard](https://meta.discourse.org/u/gerhard)
#### Post date: [14 Luglio 2016, 10:21pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-pay-to-have-some-translation-done/47334/5 "2016-07-14T22:21:44Z")
> [@npflood](#):
>
> I’d be sending out the Yaml files and then uploading them into Transifex.
Don’t do that! Transifex is quite easy to use. Translating just the YAML files will lead to a lot of problems and additional work for you. Transifex takes care of all the hard stuff for you: pluralization, updating the translations when the English source files change, collaboration with other translators and Unicode won’t be a problem either
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### Author:  [@npflood](https://meta.discourse.org/u/npflood)
#### Post date: [14 Luglio 2016, 10:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-pay-to-have-some-translation-done/47334/6 "2016-07-14T22:28:43Z")
@gerhard Sounds like I won’t be using our usual translators for this then, we usually hire from our regional offices and get the translations back in all kinds of formats… which I then have to massage into whatever the destination format will be.
The problem with unicode wasn’t really with unicode itself, but finding translators that know how to do Burmese in Unicode, most of them work in Zawgyi (a custom font and keyboard system) that predates the scripts inclusion in UTF.
Any recommendation as to where to hire translators that might already understand Transifex or similar systems?
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### Author:  [@npflood](https://meta.discourse.org/u/npflood)
#### Post date: [14 Luglio 2016, 10:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-pay-to-have-some-translation-done/47334/7 "2016-07-14T22:37:49Z")
@codinghorror That’s a VERY helpful article. One thing I noticed in there was to start with the `client.{lang}.yml` file as that contains the “user-facing labels.” I took a look through the `server.en.yml` file and found a lot of strings that looked like they would be sent to users as well:
####Example:
> Sorry, new users can only put %{count} links in a post.
**Will I be missing a lot if we only translate the `client` file?**
Clearly I have to keep costs down here, but if I’m going to ask for money, I need to know if the job will seem done when we put in the translations.
THANKS again everyone for helping. Keep the suggestions coming!
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [14 Luglio 2016, 10:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-pay-to-have-some-translation-done/47334/8 "2016-07-14T22:38:39Z")
Hard to say. I would focus on the strings you see on the homepage, in the topic list, and in a topic itself. Also check the editor.
There are certainly many strings that are very rarely (if ever) seen..
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### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [14 Luglio 2016, 10:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-pay-to-have-some-translation-done/47334/9 "2016-07-14T22:40:01Z")
> [@npflood](#):
>
> Will I be missing a lot if we only translate the client file?
Yes. The client and server, as far as I know, are just what is put with ruby and with ember, both gets in front of the users.
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### Author:  [@npflood](https://meta.discourse.org/u/npflood)
#### Post date: [14 Luglio 2016, 10:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-pay-to-have-some-translation-done/47334/10 "2016-07-14T22:44:03Z")
@Falco Oh, that makes a lot of sense and is fundamentally different than my understanding. Makes sense that the one being sent wholesale to the user through javascript would be smaller. I was thinking they referred to user space and admin space, but clearly the naming doesn’t mean that now that I understand your post.
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### Author:  [@gerhard](https://meta.discourse.org/u/gerhard)
#### Post date: [14 Luglio 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-pay-to-have-some-translation-done/47334/11 "2016-07-14T22:49:48Z")
The client.en.yml contains an “admin\_js” section. Everything belonging to it will only show up in the admin interface. So, you could ignore those if you want.
>
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### Author:  [@npflood](https://meta.discourse.org/u/npflood)
#### Post date: [14 Luglio 2016, 11:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-pay-to-have-some-translation-done/47334/12 "2016-07-14T23:12:58Z")
Looking here it seems that I might be able to hire my translators through Transifex:
> **[Home | Transifex Help Center](https://help.transifex.com/en/)**
>
> Transifex Help Center
Does anyone have experience doing this?