Translation Squad, Assemble!

I get lots of requests for translations of

my videos. Not just from people who want

the videos translated so that they can

share them with their friends who don't

speak English. But also from people
who

are offering to translate the videos.

They're offering to add subtitles in
German,

French, Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, Farsi
and so on.

And, there's a feature in YouTube that
allows

community contributions. I can click a

button that allows viewers to add subtitle

in other languages. I've never used it
because

I always thought that certain
individuals

who don't like me very much would just

fill all my videos up with subtitles that

say David Woods sucks. It turns out that

YouTube has a pretty good system for

preventing that. As people are adding

subtitles, there's a program in place

that checks to see whether the subtitles

roughly line up with Google translate and

it weeds out people who aren't really
translating.

After that, real translations get approved

by other people who speak the language and

I can approve them based on how many

people agree with the translation.

So, I think we can try some translations,

but I have over 600 videos so I was

thinking that we'd start with a smaller

set of videos to see how it goes.

I still don't know how this works, and

most of you probably haven't added your

own translations to videos before, so we

can do a set of videos, and figure out

everything so that we're all on the same
page.

Then we can do another set of
videos, by

that time we should be on top of this, and

I'll just click allow community
contributions

for all videos, and anyone can translate

anything they are interested in sharing

with their friends or community.

And this is actually a really powerful
tool.

When I post a video, and I go to YouTube

analytics to see where people are watching

the United States is usually the biggest

source of viewers, but that's not always

the case.

Sometimes, viewers on the opposite side

of the world are more interested in the
topic.

For instance, Last year I posted a video

titled Muhammad Was A Sex Addict.

It's about Muhammad bragging about having

sex with 9 women and girls in a single day

not counting slave girls, and his
followers

boasting that their prophet had the sexual

strength of 30 men.

Today, we would call someone who brags

about having sex with 9 women and girls in

a day; a sex addict.

Clicking on YouTube analytics, we see that

over a quarter of this videos viewers are

from India. Almost twice as many people

watched the video in India as watched it

in the United States.

In fourth place, is Malaysia, a Muslim

majority country. Fifth place is
Indonesia

a Muslim majority country. Down the list

we have Pakistan, Bangladesh, United Arab

Emirates, Saudi Arabia and so on.

So, there are lots of people around the

world who are interested in watching these

videos. And people can watch them around

the world because there are people around

the world who speak English.

But, there are also lots of people who

don't speak English or who don't speak it

very well who are interested in the topics

but who can't watch them because of the

language barrier.

And, that's where you guys come in.

YouTube lets you translate everything.

The video title, the description, and

everything that's said.

If you translate a video into Farsi,

that video will then start to pop up in

searches when Farsi speakers are looking

for videos in Farsi.

If 10,000 people then watch the video in

Farsee, those were all people who

wouldn't have seen the video if you hadn't

translated it.

So, this is a powerful way to share infor-
mation.

We're the first generation that could have

even dreamed of sharing information this

fast.

Which is why I'm inviting you to

contribute subtitles in the language of

the people you want to reach.

I mentioned that we'll start with a

smaller set of videos so that we can get

used to the process.

I've got a set of 20 videos in my Fun

Islamic Facts series. I picked that set

of videos because they are all short.

They're popular in other countries, and

I've added correct English subtitles to

all of them and included the full text of

the videos in the description box.

I think that will help with the
translating.

In fact, since the full text is in the

description box, you could just translate

the full text, put it in the description

box for the translated version, and then

cut and paste the sentences into the

subtitles section.

So, if you know another language and you'd

like to contribute, there is a link to the

Fun Islamic Facts play list in the

description box. I've enabled community

contributions for the entire set.

I'll check the comments on this page

whenever I can. At least, until I post a

follow up video. So, If you run into any

technical problems this is the place to

share those comments. Hopefully, there

will be enough of us involved that we can

help anyone who's having trouble.

Also keep in mind that if you don't have

much time, you don't have to translate an

entire video. You can translate a couple

of lines, and then another viewer can

translate a few more lines, and then

someone else can come along and translate

more or do some editing or confirm the

translation. If you've got a couple of

friends who'd like to help you, you can

divide up the video and tag team it.

So, this is a community process.

Once we've familiarized ourselves with the

process and figured everything out again,

I'll enable community contributions on all

of my videos and you can focus on the

videos you like most and that you think

would be most helpful in your area.

On a related note, keep in mind that all

of you are always free to download my

videos add translations as subtitles and

then upload them to your own channels.

Even better, you're welcome to translate

my videos and then rerecord them with you

saying what I said, but in your own
language.

In other words, you can videos with you,

sitting in your chair, saying exactly what

I'm saying but in your own language.

You don't have to acknowledge me or give

me credit for anything. I don't care.

I'm not stingy with my arguments, so feel

free to treat my material as your own
material.

But, if you'd like to add subtitles to my

videos, that would be awesome, so let's

get started. I'll post an update about 2

weeks from now, so we can discuss how the

translations are going, and what we'll

focus on next.

If there's a particular video you'd like

to translate, let me know in the comments

section here so that I can add English

subtitles to the video. I've heard that

it's easier to translate from written

English text on the screen than to keep

pausing to translate while listening to me

talk, so I'll always try to add my own
text.

In case you're new to community

contributions, here are some videos that

explain how to get started.

All right, talk to you soon.