Non-English language caches in Europe

[+Bazzerbeeza]

I will be visiting the Danube and wish to leave the odd smiley en-route. Looking at geocaching.com the caches are, naturally, in non-English languages. Does anyone have any guidance for easily producing English equivalents and how to translate the Hints. Thanks

[+Oxford Stone]

Do all your prep at home. http://www.freetranslation.com/ or similar for translating, or just translate the page within your browser. Trying to do it all "in the field" if you have no knowledge of the language, could be tricky! I bet you soon know the Serbian for magnetic, though.

 

What I think would be a wonderful resource, would be a google doc spreadsheet with all the typical hint words, and a column for each language. If anyone reads this and is willing to set it up, I'll populate the French column.

[+Armsey]

You can’t go wrong with Google translate;-

 

http://translate.google.co.uk/?hl=en&tab=wT

 

There is also an APP if you can access your phone while there.

[+mellers]

Even better than Google translate, if you can tear yourself away from Internet Explorer or Firefox and use Chrome as your browser, sometimes (depending on how English-y the cache title is, I think) Chrome will instantly offer to translate the page for you with a button at the top. Saves all that tedious copy and pasting in to Google translate.

 

FOr example:

viewing THIS one in Chrome means you get offered an instant translate option

whereas THIS one doesn't offer that facility... mainly I think because Chrome doesn't recognise it as a foreign language which is due to the English word in the title.

[+Bazzerbeeza]

Thank you all for your prompt responses, yes I could be lazy and use Google Translate but I fancy being real lazy and using the Google Chrome solution. I just need to figure out how to translate the Additional Hint bit, or is this impossible?

[+mellers]

Chrome should translate that too. Just decrypt the hint BEFORE you click on the "translate" button

[+redsox_mark]

I too use Chrome and auto-translate.

 

For puzzles and multis it is best to get help from a speaker of the language. I find that often something doesn't quite translate correctly which throws me off.

[+Happy Humphrey]

If you use IE you should be able to simply press the "Translate" button on the Google bar or the Bing bar .

[BOBBLES WORLD TOUR]

I use an OFFLINE dictionary for my Android phone.

There are many language variations, so you just download what you require. German - English for example.

That way I DON'T get any roaming charges.

If you search ye shall find.

[+ivanidea]

I have been amazed at how many foreign caches I have done which have English as the primary or secondary language. It then comes as a shock when you do get one only in the native language though - this is there caching skills come in useful.

[+jmbillings]

I have been amazed at how many foreign caches I have done which have English as the primary or secondary language. It then comes as a shock when you do get one only in the native language though - this is there caching skills come in useful.

 

I did some in Italy recently; and they tended to be in Italian and German. The Android Google translate app now lets you store languages offline, and the app I use lets me just tap-and-hold the text and pick "Translate".

Easy

[+Pink icing]

Off to spain tomorrow and notice all the local geocache are in native language. Has anyone used an offline app via ipad/ ipod to translate?

[+Delta68]

Off to spain tomorrow...

 

Gosh! I always plan months in advance and translate a short list of must-do caches complete with 'reserves' in case of DNFs. Mind you, we do like to find as many different cache types per country which makes things a whole lot more complicated! B)

 

M

[+mellers]

yep... I'm another one who plans their foreign caching trips weeks/months in advance! But then again I like to make sure I don't miss out any web-cams, virtuals and challenge caches.

 

Something to think about when you're writing your foreign caching logs, is that it's often a nice addition if you can leave a few helpful comments in your log, in the language of the place you're in. "Log was dry" or "Co-ordinates were accurate" or "hint was helpful" provide good feedback to the CO in their own language, and even something like "My GPSr was trying to tell me it was about 30metres away when I found it" or similar, will help local finders who don't speak English to know they've got to widen their search.

 

I suppose for myself, it's fortunate for me that I speak a bit of French so I can write reasonably understandable bi-lingual logs for French caches, but even Dutch and German I will have a go at writing something (pretty basic) using translation software. I've had some lovely messages from foreign COs (whose English is usually much better than my faltering attempts).

 

Obviously NOT a pre-requisite (everyone should feel free to write what they like in a log) but if you go with a few phrases pre-translated, you can save the next finder a job by not having to translate what you've written in English. Just a thought and not anything anyone should feel pressured to do.

 

(Hides behind sofa now for fear of inciting various "how long a log should be" & the relative merits of "TFTC" etc etc posts )