20
$\begingroup$

This question was recently closed as off topic. This type of question is neither disallowed by the FAQ nor explicitly recommended. However, it seems like a question that would be best handled on this site. The translated questions might prove good for the site.

I am not recommending that we should become a translation service, but it seems a shame to let good questions pass by simply because they are not from an English text. How do people feel about this topic?

Details

In case the question is deleted, it asks for the translation of two questions from Kolmogorov's Probability Contest. The author claims there are no English translations of the contest past year 5.

$\endgroup$
7
  • 22
    $\begingroup$ My thought was that mathematical texts are not the standard fare at most of the language stack exchange sites. It has been my experience that literal translations of scientific texts are not always good; such texts require a knowledge of the science to be translated properly. $\endgroup$
    – robjohn Mod
    Nov 28, 2012 at 23:00
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ Related. $\endgroup$
    – Cameron Buie
    Nov 28, 2012 at 23:36
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ A better question to ask is: would it really get a better answer here than at Google translate? (FWIW, I don't know about Russian, but Google translate often does a passable job with German math texts.) It is not just an issue of whether humans can potentially do better (yes they can), but an issue of whether anyone would care to undertake the effort. $\endgroup$
    – Willie Wong
    Nov 29, 2012 at 11:15
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ I have just voted to reopen the question. I have no problem with requests for translation of small amounts of mathematics. $\endgroup$
    – Brian M. Scott
    Nov 29, 2012 at 23:31
  • $\begingroup$ @BrianM.Scott If I remember correctly, the papers were of substantial length (though only the questions might qualify as small amount) $\endgroup$
    – Hagen von Eitzen
    Nov 29, 2012 at 23:52
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ Admittedly, we have already seen "English to English" translation requests ("What does the author mean when he wirtes ...?"). But translating a russion probability problem into an english probability problem is IMHO not the usual subject-matter (as opposed to questions how to tackle th eproblem, once it has been translated). $\endgroup$
    – Hagen von Eitzen
    Nov 29, 2012 at 23:55
  • $\begingroup$ @Hagen: I was thinking of just the questions. And no, it’s not our usual subject matter; that’s why I noted that I’ve no objection to it. Sadly, the languages with which I can help all have native speakers who post frequently. $\endgroup$
    – Brian M. Scott
    Nov 30, 2012 at 0:01

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
11
$\begingroup$

Sorry. Those were short questions in Probability and not even trivial boring questions but nice and typical tricky russian contests' questions.

A language forum has linguists around not mathematicians. I also was going to compile the problems along with my answers in English and publish them on a forum.

$\endgroup$
1
  • 6
    $\begingroup$ Language forums can have people on them with mathematical training, and the Russian language forum definitely does. However, the Russian language forum on Stack Exchange discourages translation requests. $\endgroup$
    – KCd
    Dec 1, 2012 at 5:37

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .