Journal papers in a foreign language

[andytoh]

Any suggestions on how to cope with foreign languages in journal papers? Say you want to read a proof of a certain theorem. But the ONLY published proof of that theorem is in Russian, and it has never been translated in English. Other than learning Russian, any suggestions on how to learn the proof? I cannot get by by just reading the symbols and guessing their meanings.

 

[learnfrench]

This website will translate chunks of text or entire websites:

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/

 

[Diffy]

That site, from experience usually does a poor job. If you are at a university, you can try to find a math professor that speaks Russian. At my school there are plenty of Russian Math Professors. Or you can try the foreign language department of your school.

Or you can call some local high schools, there should be some that teach russian or have someone the foreign language department who has some experience with it.

Or that site might actually work for you, it might be a question of ease of translation versus accuracy to determine what you have to do.

 

[n_bourbaki]

You learn 'enough' Russian (or whatever language) by using a dictionary. Fortunately mathematical papers often read the same irrespective of language, and indeed the words are often the same. The only difficulty with Russian is the alphabet.It is often (always?) a requirement of an American PhD to translate a paper from a foreign language (not one's first) into English.

 

[roam]

The only difficulty with Russian is the alphabet.

No, the cyrillic alphabet it is very easy, it borrows some stuff from the greek alphabet that you are already familiar with. I like the alphabet better than all the other alphabets I use (including arabic).

bourbaki

Бурбаки

بوڔباكى

See? which one do you find the most straightforward?

 

[cristo]

No, the cyrillic alphabet it is very easy, it borrows some stuff from the greek alphabet that you are already familiar with. I like the alphabet better than all the other alphabets I use (including arabic).

bourbaki

Бурбаки

بوڔباكى

See? which one do you find the most straightforward?

Erm.. the top one?!