donderdag, oktober 04, 2007
Multilingual and multilingual is multi
I've designed the site from scratch as a multilingual site. Boy, has that been more work than I anticipated. Today I want to explain how I see languages in about2findout.com. It's more than just the interface.
But there is of course first and foremost the language of the user interface. At present the site's interface is completely translated into English and Dutch. You can set the language at the top bar and the setting is remembered when you next log on. For anonymous users the language is the one from the browser, with English as default language. Multilingual interfaces are very common across the Internet, but most sites keep it at that.
The dynamic content (the questions that is) that users make can be in one of six languages: English, Dutch, French, German, Spanish and Italian. Users can take any of these when they create new languages and also spell check is provided in these languages.
And then there is something (I think) new: I'm not assuming people only speak one language. There are basically only two countries in the world where it is a safe choice to only speak one language. In most other parts of the world you'll need to understand 2, 3 or more languages. So in your profile, you can indicate all languages you understand. Regardless of the interface language choice, when you opt to get a random questions you will be offered in any of the languages you understand. Also the search screen will automatically filter for the languages you understand.
BTW, doing questions in languages you don't completely master is also a nice learning experience. My friend for example currently flickrs (is that a verb?) in Spanish, to learn the language.
But there is of course first and foremost the language of the user interface. At present the site's interface is completely translated into English and Dutch. You can set the language at the top bar and the setting is remembered when you next log on. For anonymous users the language is the one from the browser, with English as default language. Multilingual interfaces are very common across the Internet, but most sites keep it at that.The dynamic content (the questions that is) that users make can be in one of six languages: English, Dutch, French, German, Spanish and Italian. Users can take any of these when they create new languages and also spell check is provided in these languages.
And then there is something (I think) new: I'm not assuming people only speak one language. There are basically only two countries in the world where it is a safe choice to only speak one language. In most other parts of the world you'll need to understand 2, 3 or more languages. So in your profile, you can indicate all languages you understand. Regardless of the interface language choice, when you opt to get a random questions you will be offered in any of the languages you understand. Also the search screen will automatically filter for the languages you understand.
BTW, doing questions in languages you don't completely master is also a nice learning experience. My friend for example currently flickrs (is that a verb?) in Spanish, to learn the language.
Labels: about2findout, languages, multilingual
