8 replies to this topic

[spinter]

Request for forum available to Italian languages and frenc etc! For me I have difficulty in translating the forums you can add more languages​​?

[Mario Vernari]

Hello Spinter. I mean that you may have difficulty by reading/writing English, but the scientific world is actually speaking English. As an Italian, I'm making a discrete effort by writing in such a language, but it's the only way to read tons of literature, articles, and exchanging ideas with people of any country. There are some material in Italian or French, but most of the people is trying to use English anyway. It's just as you were working in the US: either you learn English, or you won't able to communicate. If you aren't interested in writing/reading/learning English, I may suggest to use Google Translate. It's not surely the best way, but is helpful and totally free. If you are Italian, the translation of some terms would be even harder than leaving them in English: if someone asks me "il topo non lavora correttamente" (="the mouse is not working properly"), firstly I laugh for an hour, then I think about a lazy little rat, maybe seeking something else than cheese! Hope it helps. Cheers

[spinter]

molte volte serve solo per cose banali magari per qualche consiglio! often serves only to trivial things maybe for some advice!

[Spork]

As a native English speaker, I think that forums in other languages would be a very good idea. From what I've seen of Mario, in English, he can probably single-handedly foster an entire Italian Netduino community. Mario: I agree that the scientific community tends to conduct itself in English. But, I would hope that we're trying to reach people outside the scientific community! My interest in Netduino is on a purely hobby basis. Grazie a Google Translate, parlo italiano! (?)

[Mario Vernari]

As you may see, my English is rough, just because I never learn it (seriously in the school). Thus I make a discrete effort to write in such a language, than using my own native Italian. By the way, if I were writing in Italian, who will read my posts/articles? I think a very small number of people will use a translator (e.g. Google's) to read them: simply don't read them... My wife works as researcher in the university of Venezia, thus Italy...She tells me that any publication/article *MUST* be written in American English (not British), because the whole community uses it as a common recognized language. So, the sci people should think in a different way than "writing/talking in the US language": to talk each other we should "write/talk in the scientific language". It's also clear that there are plenty of people that don't know anything of English, and would love to read articles and posts in Italian, Russian, French, etc. But...what can we do? I guess even a people translating all the time everything is posted here would be an huge work... Suggestions? Cheers

[Nevyn]

As you may see, my English is rough, just because I never learn it (seriously in the school).

Mario, your English is far better than my attempts at writing or speaking any language other than English.

As for non-English forums I am not sure if this is a good idea. Not because I have problems with other languages but simply because you will reduce the number of people who will read your post. You will therefore reduce the chance of having any questions answered.

Regards,
Mark

[Stefan]

Small disclaimer: This is no official statement as moderator but as a person

But having multiple languages it would get more difficult to monitor/moderate posts. It looks like nothing is moderated but I can tell I remove quite a lot of spam. If posts were in Italian, I wouldn't be able to see if it's spam or not without using translating software myself, which would take too much time.
French and German I could read a tiny bit, but also not well enough to act to it.

Then there's the issue of localisation. The forum software is in English. That should also be available in other languages. So it would also require a change to the website. If you do the forums in Italian, it wuold be nice if all other pages of the website were in Italian.

Not because I have problems with other languages but simply because you will reduce the number of people who will read your post. You will therefore reduce the chance of having any questions answered.

Good point! That's also a good reason to keep everything in English.

As you may see, my English is rough, just because I never learn it (seriously in the school).

You're English is way better then the English I read from some native speakers

I commonly notice I use Dunglish instead of English, but by using the English language I learn a second language and learn something about electronics at the same time.

[Chris Walker]

I really appreciate the efforts that our worldwide speakers go through to learn, write, and read using English on the forums. Bringing so many people together (from so many cultures) to share in one community is really awesome. I suppose that one day the community will grow to such a size that we may need to create non-English forums (so that language-specific sub-communities may form). I hope that day comes later rather than sooner, as I enjoy the musings of our international guests. Chris

[spinter]

I think that if we attract people we have to give them the opportunity to express themselves! I like many others we have not had the chance to go to English school!! And there is always google traslator!