While We Wait For The Babel Fish

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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

[email protected]

Skype: steph-booth

reboot9, 31.05-01.06.2007Copenhagen