Changing a Dutch Diary to English Somehow ??

leon · #1 02-08-2021, 04:17 PM

Hi guys, a long time ago actually, when we all migrated from Holland and I was only 3 when we landed on these shores, my mother had written a diary of the travel experience, however it is all in dutch.

I can speak dutch and understand it, but am no able to read it, so i was wondering is there any computer magic that maybe able to help decipher this diary.

Maybe the pages can be scanned and then translated some how, I really have no idea.

So dose anyone have any thoughts on it please, as i would love to see what she actually wrote nearly 70 years ago

Thank You Leon

AndyG (Andy) · #2 02-08-2021, 04:58 PM

Hi Leon,
Sounds like fun. I often use google translate on my phone for various tasks. Most recent being the installation of a Japanese shower mixer in our bathroom.
If you search in Youtube for "google translate app", you will see many examples and how-tos. Using the camera function is most appropriate, within the limits of the system to recognise handwriting.

Good luck

bojan · #3 02-08-2021, 05:38 PM

Google translate is a disaster..
Some time ago I wanted to translate a novel "Im_Banne_des_Alpha_Centauri" by Manfred Langrenus (aka Friedrich Hecht) from German.. the result was un-readable. And that was translation form text file.. not handwriting.

I suggest you find someone (from family, they may be interested themselves) to do it for you.

Wilsil (Wilco) · #4 02-08-2021, 06:21 PM

Hi @leon, I am Dutch living in Perth, WA.
I might be able to help in translating. We only came over in 2006 and still speak Dutch in our house.

xelasnave · #5 02-08-2021, 07:42 PM

My first girl friend Dutch and both wives were part Dutch...Dutch and Russian and Dutch and English...

AdamJL · #6 02-08-2021, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndyG

Hi Leon,
Sounds like fun. I often use google translate on my phone for various tasks. Most recent being the installation of a Japanese shower mixer in our bathroom.
If you search in Youtube for "google translate app", you will see many examples and how-tos. Using the camera function is most appropriate, within the limits of the system to recognise handwriting.

Good luck

I agree with this. I use Microsoft translator and it's great. Offline translating as well, you just download a language pack and point your phone at text to start translating (once you take the picture)

The best and most accurate method of course, is a human translator!

leon · #7 03-08-2021, 06:27 AM

Thank you so much for your assistance I have two very keen Members who are able to help and we will see how it all goes, this is quite exciting, as we moved here in 1950 and landed in Melbourne from the Ship on my 3rd birthday some 64 years ago.
I do wonder what she (Mum) actually wrote.

Leon

xelasnave · #8 03-08-2021, 07:04 AM

You are so lucky Leon...That record of your history is an absolute treasure...these are the stories that should be regarded as important...these are the stories worthy of being made into a movie...real stories about real people not fantacy stories made up by people skilled in creating lies about an imaginary folk in a make believe world...I would love to see a movie derived from the insights from your diary.
This has made me very happy.
Alex

leon · #9 03-08-2021, 07:25 AM

Yes Alex, i am, it will be a true account of the journey from Holland to Melbourne in those early days.
They came from a land of plenty into a different world and left everything behind to start again under the propaganda guise of a land of opportunity, but it didn't quite turn out that way.
It was a very hard slog from what i have been told as I grew up.

I could go on forever here, however that diary will revel a lot.

Leon

xelasnave · #10 03-08-2021, 08:30 AM

Well mate it was real hard for everyone back then.
Alex

gary · #11 04-08-2021, 01:35 PM

So if you were to feed it into Google Translate and ask it to translate from Dutch to Dutch, does it become what they refer to as Double Dutch?

Curious minds need to know.

leon · #12 04-08-2021, 02:16 PM

It is already double dutch to me Gary as it is. LOL

Leon

Wilsil (Wilco) · #13 05-08-2021, 11:31 AM

Google translation isn't always right.
My daughter did translate Pearcy Jackson from English to Dutch and back again. The whole story changed and he died..... Mmmm, not quiet right.

RB (Andrew) · #14 05-08-2021, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by leon

It is already double dutch to me Gary as it is. LOL

Leon

Send it to me Leon.
I’ll translate it for you...
But then it’ll be all Greek to you...

leon · #15 05-08-2021, 01:39 PM

Andrew what are we going to do with you.

Leon

RB (Andrew) · #16 05-08-2021, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by leon

Andrew what are we going to do with you.

Leon

Kal (Andrew) · #17 05-08-2021, 05:52 PM

I translated an entire book from Polish to English for a family member a couple of years ago.

The hardest part was the OCR (scanning the pages in using a scanner then Optical Character Recognition software to convert it to a cut and paste text format. I had to find free OCR software that had Polish as a language (polish has 32 characters in the alphabet) and there were many scanning errors that I would have to proof read for.

The actual translation of this text I just cut and pasted into google translate one page at a time, this was the easy bit.

leon · #18 06-08-2021, 06:32 AM

Thanks Andrew, sounds like a bit involved, I am not sure where i will go from here.

Leon