Multilingual Germ Cell Tumour Discussion Group

Hi all,

At the beginning of the month of May I set up a usenet/google groups discussion on paediatric Germ Cell Tumours. (Teratomas & "similar" cancers).

For the time being (only three weeks later) we have both french and english speaking members but hope to see this group open to all languages.

The extreme rareness of this type of early childhood disease already makes the retrieval and redistibution of precious information or advice difficult enough.

Being able to reach out and touch parents with children diagnosed with such a tumour, wherever they may be on the globe, and bring them the support, advice and information that may otherwise be lacking in their country, region or language - this is the vocation of the google discussion group I have founded.

It would be fantastic, on a scientific, as well as on a psychological level, if each message - from a parent, a survivor, or a paediatric surgeon on the lookout for a sugical protocol, or each reply to the same, could be posted in every possible tongue.

Bises
Tantine

Hi Tantine,
Maybe we can help you. Can you tell us how long each text is ?
If the size of the texts is not too high, maybe we can give you points to submit your text to the community.
If it's really too big, then maybe you could create a project on cucumis and submit your texts inside. Then you can request the help of members to transalte some texts. nava91 has done the same thing with his project "popular sentences", you can have a look at it here : Popular texts.

Hi JP

Unfortunately, I can't say, in advance, how long any particular text to translate might be.

They could range from a simple, ten word information request, to a fully blown surgical protocol, and passing by a several paragraph, personal account, of a Germ Cell Tumour experience. Everything depends, each day, on the type of messages we receive.

Mostly I think they will probably be quite short texts.

I will obviously immediately reinvest any points I may accumulate in doing translations for cucumis on "buying" translations of messages I will need submit here.

I would like to investigate the idea of creating a project on cucumis but I'm not sure if the type and volume of the possible texts to be submitted would be as workable as nava91's "popular texts"project. The obvious difference being that from one week (even day) to another the texts I hope to have translated into 9000 different languages will never be the same ones.

Hope it might work out though, it could be really great.

Bises
Tantine

OK, then I guess the best solution is to for your first submitions. Then, I will have a better idea. I suggest that you create a project with the description in your first post because you can submit texts in the main stream (the one that see all translators) under the project description. It gives a context that you don't have to repeat for each new request.

By the way, what do you mean when you say "9000 different languages" ? Is it an expression ? I don't know 9000 langugages!

I can try this idea, thanks JP.

I also think that one or two medical studies could be translated in this way.

If I'm not able to calculate the probable size of any incoming messages, I am at least able to indicate the size of one or two medical studies we have "in stock". So I will get back to you on this one.

As for the 9000 languages, in the beginning I thought I was really extravagantly exagerating. I looked things up a little in the Encyclopedia Britannica, but this was too fastidious, I had to keep adding one language family to another.

I gave up and looked on wiki, who speak of "about" 7000, so I didn't exagerate too much.
To these, must be added a certain number of regional languages or dialects (I'm not counting computer language or foul language though )

Bises
Tantine

IT's idealistic to start such a huge project, and I have to say, it's rather a linguistic project than a medical project.

Maybe you can follow the web 3.0 tech to help build your own website, where members can build different versions of the site in their own languages.

http://www.cancer.gov/search/results.aspx

http://www.lpch.org/DiseaseHealthInfo/HealthLibrary/oncology/gct.html

you can go to www.nlm.nih.gov

Hi Pluiepoco

I’m from a generation that still knew how to be idealistic, so my project is obviously a reflection of my capacity to keep on dreaming despite all!

The translation of any texts linked to my discussion group is obviously a linguistic affaire, but my web project has very little whatsoever, in itself, to do with a linguistic project.

It has to do with providing information, support and advice for the parents, and also the caregivers, of children who, like me, start their life out with a germ cell tumour.

I didn’t put a link to my google group in my original message, so I have added it here:

http://groups.google.com/group/teratoma-free-discussion

It is my personal webpage, and not the abovementioned discussion group, which is to be found on my cucumis profile page. This may be leading to some confusion.

Unfortunately, your idea would not only be unworkable, for my purposes, it would also be somewhat counter-productive, as the idea is not to create tons of websites, webpages and weblogs, incapable of communicating between themselves. On the contrary, this is already, unfortunately, the existing situation, and the very reason that my group was created.

Furthermore, the group’s members are mainly parent’s-to-be or parents of newborn babies or very young children with a very rare cancer, and I am not sure that they have the time, energy or inclination to consecrate to the creation of a website (for which they would have to find all the relevant information, by themselves, in foreign languages, that they don’t understand, get it translated etc).

Most do end up creating a webpage, but much later, when their baby’s life is no longer in danger, so I will certainly be keeping your suggestions on this subject in mind.

The idea, of the TFD group, is to enable a discussion between these parents and/or caregivers, adult survivors… despite any language barrier, which might otherwise exist. A multilingual forum for an extremely rare but, sadly, international disease.

One of the aims of the group, outside of the discussions themselves, is to provide information and advice, where it is needed and in the appropriate tongue. A new surgical protocol, or advice on follow up management, for example, written in Hindi, would be of little or no use to a doctor or parent in Holland if it is not translated into Dutch… Our aim is to provide such a possibility in order to induce the best and most up-to-date care for childhood germ cell tumour victims.

But I don’t know how to transform my needs into a workable project that cucumis could cope with.

Thanks for the links too

Bises

Tantine

To build a single multilingual website is workable, just look at this language site:

help.berberber.com

you can apply the same Vbulletin forum style, to enable every existing languages supporting the same services and discussions and advices. Then any one in any place of the world can follow that forum to ask and answer, to help and to be helped, but that still depends, because no one knows every language, but at least, he who log on that website can visually see all information presented there. He has the equal right to understand. And if needs appear, people who proceed to give translations can satisfy.

By the way, Tantine, in your profile page here I can't see no website mentioned.

Mela

My personal web page is under the little houses on the top of my profile page.

It the link to my blog. I don't intend to translate that into so many languages!
At least not for the time being!

Basgi
Tantine

Tantine, notice my private message sent in Chinese console.

Yes, thanks Pluiepoco,

I'm sending an email to your friend to see if I can help her.

Bises
Tantine