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lisa22

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 20, 2009
1
0
Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone can offer advice for professional translation software (NOT free online translation programs) that's compatible with Macs. Everything I find only has system requirements for stupid Windows... I translate from Russian to English.
 
First, this post should probably be in the Application forum, but as you are looking for advice, I will give you my opinion.
I am a professional translator, from Japanese to English, my native language. That is the general rule in the translation business, translations should be be done by a native speaker of the resultant language. Are you a native speaker of Englsh? If you are Russian, you will have a distinct disadvantage, getting the finished translation reading, or sounding, natural in English. If you are Russian you would be best advised to go the other way, translating English into your native language. However, the big problem in your post is the fact that you are looking for software to do the translation. In my opinion, machine translation is at least 50 or more years down the road. Even the best translation software available now is - at best - tolerable doing the simplest work, and over 90% of the time the results are not usable, requiring a lot of rewriting (if you can even understand what the original writer intended).
Rather, I suggest you look for good electronic dictionaries and reference sources. For the real meaning of a word or phrase in English, the American Heritage Dictionary (available for purchase online) is a great reference. Logo Vista has an extensive line of dictionaries (I am not sure about Russian-English) and there are many others.
In the end, I believe you should do the translation work, understanding the source material and writing it in your native language, rather than look for software to do the work for you. :D I know that is an old-fashioned opinion - but I believe it anyway. :cool:
 
The only translator, as opposed to dictionary, that I have come across for Mac OSX was a German-English effort, which is no use to you. I have to agree with the previous commentator that machine translators are worse than useless, except for relatively close languages. For Russian, Pragma for Windows will produce a useable translation in Ukrainian but a poor one in German or English.

You may as well use Google translate. It is really no worse than Systran or any of the other established translators as a starting point and will probably overhaul these before too long.
 
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