Multiple Language

[+questio]

I don't know if this topic ever came up but here it goes...

 

I hate trying to find caches on another country and finding the pages only in the local language. Ok, i know this is the owners choice.

But it's also annoying to read the page and see that you have different languages along the page.

 

It would be great if the site could provide separate spaces for 2 languages (native and English), or if the owner didn't bother to write in two languages, the English part would be an automatic translation. This would be only for the description text, everything else should be the same.

[geode hunter]

I see this as a challenge. Don'y really want to learn all the languages. but decrypting them is fun. Try Babel Fish , it can tranlater one word, phrases, or whole web pages.

 

Hope this helps

Edited November 7, 2005 by geode hunter

[+Urubu]

Why should German cache pages be in anything but German, or Brazilian caches be in anything but Portuguese? After all, we don't expect to have to include Spanish or French translations on US pages.

 

It seems to me that non-US hiders have no obligation to write anything in English at all, and if they do include English it's very thoughtful.

 

That said, Google includes some nice translation features. Use the more>> button above the search window and then look for Translate. It's pretty cool, although the results are occasionally comical.

[+tobsas]

Why should German cache pages be in anything but German, or Brazilian caches be in anything but Portuguese?  After all, we don't expect to have to include Spanish or French translations on US pages. 

 

It seems to me that non-US hiders have no obligation to write anything in English at all, and if they do include English it's very thoughtful.

 

That said, Google includes some nice translation features. Use the more>> button above the search window and then look for Translate.  It's pretty cool, although the results are occasionally comical. 

Forget Google or any other automated online translation service if you really would like to look for a cache. You might get an idea of the cache, but in most cases you hast have no chance.

 

The english description is a service for tourists not speaking the local language and for owners of TBs to get an idea about the cache which they might want to look for or the TB is sitting at. I like this service as I do would like to cache for example in Italy even though my italian skills are worse than bad. But as Groundspeak has other prioritys in implementing features as this often and since long ago asked one, it's anoying more and more to offer the description in more than one language: If you want to have a look for example at our cache Klaus which has "only" English and German. (Please be aware that there are regions in for example Europe where more than two languages are very close to each other.) It's really long to print german and english. If you then compare the number of people forced to print the description in both english and german to the number of people needing the english one, you will realize that there were no finders so far who needed the english one. The result is a big amount of wasted paper and ink, esp. if you take all Multis in different languages together.

 

There are other possibilities as proposed in this forum long ago, you'll find them if you dig deep enough. Of course it's the decision of others than me if this (or any other) feature is important or not, but my reaction might be very soon to delete the english descriptions of all our caches at geocaching.com and give for them links to the cache descriptions at the new opencaching.de only (Example: Klaus at opencaching in german and in english - there you see at once which caches have descriptions in which languages and you only have to print the one description you need. At the same time you still give tourists or TB owners the service to get easily to the needed informations about the cache.)

 

Greetings,

Tobias

[+dkwolf]

This is one of those reasons Americans don't always have the greatest public image abroad....we expect everyone to cater to us. I personally think that if you're going to visit another country, you should take the time and commit yourself to learning at least basic day-to-day phrases and words to allow you some semblance of communication with the locals. Granted, if they tear off outside of your knowledge you're going to be quite confused very quickly. I hope to visit Norway sometime in my life, but before I go I will try my hardest to attain at least a basic understanding of the language. When I get there, if signs are in English and people converse in my native tounge, that much easier for me, but if not, I have some responsibility as the GUEST in the country to make sure I have the knowledge I will need. But I digress, and could quickly end up in rant, so...

 

If a cache page is in a language you do not know, either find someone who can translate it for you or use one of the online translators. But, beware...those translators sometimes have INCREDIBLY comical results. To see what I mean, go to Babel Fish, copy the text of this posting into the box, and translate it to another language. Then, copy the result of that translation back into the original box and translate it back to English. The general idea will still mostly be there, but sentence structure and grammer will be destroyed.

 

FWIW...my first cache hide is in an area frequented by immigrants squirrel hunting, so I printed out the cache page in four different languages (english, spanish, chinese, and vietnamese) and included it in the cache.

Edited November 8, 2005 by dkwolf

[+blackjack65]

This is one of those reasons Americans don't always have the greatest public image abroad

Indeed,

 

I have recently sent out Travel Bugs that need to go to the U.S. of A.,

France, Japan & China.

 

I have therfore included TB sheets in English, French, Japanese & Traditional Chinese.

 

This way, local people will understand what to do with my TBs when they find them.

 

There is more chance of a local finder speaking the local language then English.

 

I made my own cache bilingual in French & English, because those are the

teo official languages in my country, but that remains a personnal choice.

 

In my province, whose majority speaks French,

many cachers make their cache profile French only,

and I have no problem with that.

 

But I do agree that having a way to seperate the different languages

is a good idea, as long as any language, English or other, remains optional.

[+Sue Gremlin]

More people speak Chinese than any other language. Why should cache pages automatically include an English version? English is not a universal language unless you are an air traffic controller or a commercial pilot.

[+Urubu]

Forget Google or any other automated online translation service if you really would like to look for a cache. You might get an idea of the cache, but in most cases you hast have no chance.

Remember that you'll have an exact latitude and longitude, in addition to the (possibly) oddly translated text.