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Foreign Language Accomodation

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 2:21 pm
by Interon
Yeah people are posting in languages other than English and there should be some way to accomodate them with better service.

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 2:46 pm
by Dogbreath
Erm, how? Most of us here can speak at least 2 languages and that seems to be working out pretty well at the moment, any suggestions?

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 3:03 pm
by Interon
Hard to tell, I was hoping someone would have the figurative light bulb above their head after seeing this thread.

A few ideas (these may suck but to aid in brainstorming, here they are):

1. A forum dedicated to non-English speaking people.
2. A translators usergroup?
3. Someone who knows how to correct the sloppy grammar of http://world.altavista.com
4. A warning (translate "This forum is English only" in all languages).
5. Translator integrated somewhere.
Dogbreath wrote:Most of us here can speak at least 2 languages
Huh, really? Which ones? I know you have some Spanish, Joris, Erik, and Frenkel Dutch, but who else?

Anyway, WWK translated someone's lately and it makes "All your base are belong to us" look sensible. So it looks problematic to me.

See it here at: http://www.dosgames.com/forum/viewtopic-nc-t-3279.html

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 3:17 pm
by Dogbreath
So you advocate writing "This is English only" in over 1,000 languages? =/

You're overlooking one very important factor: to be able to visit this site at all (and figure out where they're posting) people need to know SOME English... heck, to be able to play any 99.94% of the games on this site you need to know some English. Just let the people post, there'll almost always be someone who can translate.

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 3:25 pm
by Interon
I played Portuguese, Dutch, and French games, not having two sweet clues what I was reading. But I managed to play them. Ditto for some web sites, despite being unable to read them, I was able to get what I came for, even without a translation or with a sucky translation.

Anyway, I suppose you're right. It would be too cumbersome to try to solve this problem. But it is rather awkward for me and WWK to translate so I guess it's best to ignore them.

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 6:00 pm
by Wally
well joris can translate things :D
in hollandish language

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 6:08 pm
by Interon
Yeah, but what about German, French, Portuguese, etc.

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 6:45 pm
by Dogbreath
I speak Spanish and a very small amount of German. Joris and crew speak Flemish, Kazer0 speaks French, Core_12 Finnish, Dnirex Albanian and Italian, and Ro@m speaks Croatian.

That leaves Portuguese and German, though every single Brazilian educated enough to use a computer I've ever met also speaks English and English is taught in most German schools.

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 10:04 pm
by Kazer0
Seems to me that if you want support in your own language, you'd be smart enough to go to a site in that language. Otherwise, your just plain retarded. It is obviously clear that this is an English forum, and if you can't see that, you shouldn't be able to use your computer.

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 10:08 pm
by denrix
also, if you believe that cups can also be used to keep liquids from going in, you still shouldn't be able to use the computer.

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 10:14 pm
by Wally
I speak australian :Laugh:

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 11:36 pm
by x86_Game-Junkie
same ere mate...
go the green and golds!!

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 11:52 pm
by Ro@m
A translators usergroup?
This would be good!
Huh, really? Which ones?
Besides English i know German.

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2004 5:31 pm
by Interon
That only helps if you spend considerable time monitoring the forums.

Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 4:34 am
by Ro@m
well if we could make an engine that automaticaly transfers the foregin threads in the translator forum?

Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 4:36 pm
by Interon
It would be easier for the moderators/admins to do that manually. As flexible as phpBB is, I think it's high risk to tinker with it like that.

Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 9:23 pm
by wardrich
I can speak some french and a bit of German and an amount of Japanese so small it's useless

-Richard-

Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 2:50 am
by Ro@m
It would be easier for the moderators/admins to do that manually
yes also that applies,but 24\7\365 watching?

Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 10:13 am
by Interon
Not that much time!!! Or maybe we could PM the mods/admins everytime a foreign language thread shows up, then they can move the thread to the "Non-English" forum.

Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 10:18 am
by Joris
I know Dutch, English, French, German... and a bit Danish :D