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While We Wait
for the Babel Fish
Stephanie Booth
Human? Internet
Languages
in the human world
on the internet
Is it a fit?
Distinction between localised and multilingual.
Languages
in the human world
on the internet
Is it a fit?
Multilingual Humans
Who is multilingual?
more multilinguals than monolinguals
Being human among humans means living in a state of ever incomplete multilingualism.
Mario Wandruszka
Survey:
- who is truly bilingual/multilingual?- who feels they act as a bridge between linguistic groups?- who blogs/publishes written material regularly in more than one language?- who reads regularly in more than one language?- who has some knowledge of more than one language (acquired through school, immersion...)
Perfectly multilingual and somewhat multilingual.
What are my languages?
know / don't know
(too binary)
Know? Speak? Read? Write? Read a book? A newspaper article? Have a conversation? Write a letter? Write a book? Give a talk?
Internet: Space Cruncher
Freedom from spatial constraints
more intercultural contact
change of initial obstacle:
space language
Let's assume intercultural exchanges are a good and necessary thing.(More tolerance, mutual understanding, openness...)
Linguistic Borders
Online, the strongest borders are linguistic.
Some multilingual people act as bridges.
How could our tools assist them in their task?
mud photo and bridge photo
Monolingual Silos
But the internet is multilingual!
multilingual community
multilingual people
multiple monolingual spaces
mixing languages
A page is in one language (or worse, a website is in one language).Multilingual countries.
photo of silo
L10n advice for Tool Builders
localise early, localise smart
plan non-EN from the start (not an afterthought)
language != country
regional variations (fr-fr, fr-ch, fr-qc...)
crowdsource
in-house linguist
smart user language detection
Detecting User Language
Specified by:
profile (tool-side)
browser preferences
OS/browser language
geographical location
one language? n languages?
priority?
how proficient?
Misconceptions
But everybody speaks English!
country = language
Everybody speaks English, therefore localisation isn't that important.
of course you English-speakers are in contact with English-speaking foreigners!
varying degrees of speaking English -- having learnt it at school does not make it comfortable enough to discover a strange tool in it.
Remember multilingual countries (CH is not the only one around), immigrants, tourists... IP of connection is not sufficient information.
world map covered in US/EN flag? UK flag?
Geographical Abuse
IP => country => language, right?
Guilty: PayPal, Amazon, eBay, Google
country != languagebad localisation
Suw's gripe about Paris
first thing to do is to get localisation right.
country = language breaks down for:
- multilingual countries- immigrants- tourists
Countries can be important
for language: one factor amongst several
for laws: very important
taxes & censorship
Examples:
- shipping
- porn
L10n Insufficient
Localisation:
translation of the interface into another language
monolingual in various languages
Multilingualisation: (yes, it's ugly)
mixing languages
manages code-switching
different language combinations
Localisation, monolingual in various languages, is best for monolingual people.
But most people are mutlilingual! We need to make spaces nice for them too.
Photo of blocs of colour, and another of all-mixed colours.
Blogging Tools: WordPress
well localised
language is a blog-level attribute
assumes you blog in one language
no in-built strategies for mixing languages
=> 1 blog per language
a solution: other-language excerpts
translation is too hard
keeps mono&multi audience quite happy
keeps the bridge-blogger very happy
Presence Tools: Twitter
not localised
=> adoption issue
non-EN communities present
language filtering?
language detection?
Adoption issue could be way worse, because the Twitter interface is really light.
Here, localisation is less than an issue -- but code-switching is a big one, given the conversational nature of the messages people send to Twitter.
Some people resent getting messages in a language they don't understand. Some like it.
The Multilingual Challenge
Making a space both:
multilingual-friendly
monolingual-friendly
How do we keep everybody happy?
different language combinations
different language skills
No solution is perfect for everybody.
Remember. Most people are multilingual.
Going Multilingual
a strategic and technical problem
Strategic
how do we allow languages to mix?
what do we translate?
what do we show people?
how do people define their language skills?
Technical
design
encoding
lang, hreflang (HTML)
language detection
automated translation
Bonne route !
Flickr Photo Credits
romerican
Paco CT
Antoon Kuper
Hobvias Sudoneighm
Grant MacDonald
Zoom Zoom
A JC
Claude Covo-Farchi
Stephanie Booth
Lausanne, Switzerland
http://climbtothestars.org
Skype: steph-booth
reboot9, 31.05-01.06.2007Copenhagen