Recently, I’ve been working with Jeannette and Brenda on building the volunteer framework for Translation Commons(TC). This is a digital platform for translators, where they can get free access to computer assisted translation (CAT) tools, MT engines, and localization tools. It also provides learning resources and has an online community. I was excited to see such a great hub for people in the translation industry and wanted to bring it to China. In China, students majored in translation/interpretation learn little about MT, translation management system (TMS), localization workflow or best practices. For them, learning translation or interpretation means you are good at another foreign language and can envision yourself as a translator or interpreter.  And even some top language institutes in China show little interest in teaching students CAT tools, arguing these tools are too expensive. But we will finally embrace the tech-shaped future. So, I went up to Jeannette on an IMUG event and said : “I’d like to bring TC to more users in China, is there anything I can do to help?”

Jeannette then became my mentor, and building a volunteer framework has become our first thing to do.  We realized a problem as we want to promote TC among Chinese top language schools: TC is integrated with Google Suite, but G suite could not be accessed in China. Imagine that a Chinese user does a simple click on his/her dashboard and get 404 shown in the browser, or even before he/she clicks on these little icons, he/she is wondering:”What (the heck) are these?”

(Dashboard UI)

Definitely, it will result in bad user experience. Users, thinking ” I don’t know what I can do”, will soon lose interest. But I also want to ask: “What can we do?”

I talked to my friend, a principal engineer at google, asking if it’s possible to access to google suite through a third party or without using VPN, he said:”it depends but usually not”, and commented : “why don’t you fully localize your product? If you want to enter Chinese market, you need to bring a whole package of accessible toolkit!”  So, here brings out our first possible solution.

1. Integrate accessible worktools. While products like Microsoft Outlook, Calendar can act as the counterparts for some google products, please wait a second before you put them on board. Although Microsoft Outlook is not fully blocked in China, do Chinese people really (like to) use it?
2. Cooperate with local companies. Some IT companies like Youdao, a subsidiary of NetEase, also enable users to work collaboratively and share data on the cloud, all using one email account from NetEase (in Youdao’s case).  The problem is, there is no company like Google that can provide such a whole set of free tools. Paying is painful, especially for NGOs.
3. Create a new Chinese web page. Adding a Chinese web page to the website may be a considerable choice since we can direct specific users in a flexible way. On this page, we may not put in G suite, YouTube videos, but we can always put in other accessible resources.

(This blog post will be modified/updated several times as I continue working on this project. For now, I haven’t come up with any effective solution yet. I’m open to your suggestions!)