Today is a Day for Change
Steven Liu | Posted on November 5th, 2008 in RCEF. 
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Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today marks a great change. A change that we have been waiting for for a long, long time. A change that will alter the very way we perceive things.
Today is a day for inclusiveness. Today is a day to bring people together so that they may reading off the same page. Because today is the day we finally get a translation module!
No more will you be forced to suffer unnecessarily long pages! No more will you have to scroll down to view the content you want in the language you want! No more will you yearn for a still-not-implemented-translation-interface-despite-this-being-a-very-popular-open-source-blogging-software-that-is-used-by-many-many-countries!
“But,” I hear you say, “how is this all possible? You are promising nothing less than the world!”
My friends, I am nothing if not a man of my word. I promise you that I will deliver these translations, and this is how I will do it – through my Five Point Plan:
- GO to the blog page you want to:
The original page, in English
- SCAN to the right side of the page:
Look this way -->
- LOOK for the “Language 语言” module:
What's this??
- CLICK on the language you want:
Click this for Chinese
Click this for English
- SEE the page in the language you want.
Page in Chinese!
It is not a complicated plan. Neither does it pander to the lowest common denominator. My plan is designed to appeal to all people, across all races, all party lines, all age groups and nations. It is designed for YOU, Joe the Reader.
Every time you want to view the blog in your language, remember my Five Point Plan: GSLCS!*
* I have copyright on that. It’s pronounced GUH-sl-kus. Catchy, huh?
Modified
Gordon Li says:
Added on November 6th, 2008 at %I:%M %pDrawback 1 – Additional hassle with untranslated pages
Whereas the original language came out on TOP before, now MANY pages say “抱歉，中文版将于近日更新，请先阅读English版。” or “Sorry, this entry is only available in 中文. An English translation will be updated soon.” I’d expect people to prefer reading in a secondary language than not reading the post at all. The net result is a lot more clicks in blog reading than were needed before.
Drawback 2 – Additional hassle to read in original language
Whereas the original language came out on TOP before, and the translation at the bottom, now I have to do a lot of additional manual scanning: Diane’s post-> click english, Sara’s post -> click english, JP’s post -> click Chinese, Teacher Sun -> click Chinese, Steve Liu -> click English. I’d expect people with bilingual reading ability to prefer to read the original language than someone else’s translation of it. The net result is a lot more clicks in blog reading than were needed before.
Today marks a great change–A change that only benefits monolinguals
Steven Liu (blog author) says:
Added on November 6th, 2008 at %I:%M %pHmm, it’s a fair point. We’re working out a system to have translations up quicker so hopefully in the future both the original and translation will be published at the same time.
I suppose you prefer the previous method? How do others feel about it? Whilst I agree with your points about it being less usable for bilingual readers, I feel that being confronted with a page mostly in your non-native language is a bit alienating for monolingual readers.
Gordon Li says:
Added on November 8th, 2008 at %I:%M %pHow about 3 options–Original, Chinese, and English?
It’s like what wikipedia does with Chinese: 不转换, 简体, 繁體, 大陆简体, 港澳繁體, 马新简体, 台灣正體
Sara Lam (blog author) says:
Added on November 8th, 2008 at %I:%M %pI agree with Gordon that it’s inconvenient for people who are bilingual, which is probably quite a large proportion of readers. Even people who don’t understand a language might want to click in a look at the photos.
JP says:
Added on November 8th, 2008 at %I:%M %pI guess Gordon is right, the ideal solution is to have another “original version” withOUT any translation. Steve, is it possible for blog authors and translators to choose “prime” or “secondary” language when they edit posts? And then the “original version” of blog will only show the “prime” language to the readers.