Language In Cache Descriptions

[madajoax]

The answer is simple: if you don't post in the local languages, then the local people will not join in!

Present-day world politics show explicitely that making English a "world language" is an absurt utopy. Now many of the countries you mention have languages that are not plain "local" (France, Germany, Switzerland), but exist in many countries (and, in the case of France, many continents).

There is another explanation, which might be valid in your country: if geocaching has been introduced by resident expatriates from English-speaking countries, or by travellers, the cache descriptions are likely to be in English. Look again at geocaches in France: you will see that many of them are described in English, sometimes ONLY in English.

When I am hiding my own caches (in Switzerland, so far) I put the description in three languages: 1. French (the local language); 2. German (the majority language in Switzerland); 3. English (the geocaching international languages). Then I find logs in all these three languages.

[+budd-rdc]

When I am hiding my own caches (in Switzerland, so far) I put the description in three languages: 1. French (the local language); 2. German (the majority language in Switzerland); 3. English (the geocaching international languages). Then I find logs in all these three languages.

And I thank you in taking the initiative and listing your cache in more than one language.

[+sTeamTraen]

The OP has a valid point in that it's a good idea for a cache owner in Germany or France to add an English version of their cache listing. I certainly do that with all of mine.

 

But... at the end of the day, the cache belongs to its owner. Perhaps some caches would get substantially more visits if they were written in multiple languages, but perhaps the owner doesn't mind not having those, or doesn't want to read logs not in German (etc), or doesn't think his/her English is good enough, or simply didn't think about the issue of non-German (etc) speakers visiting their country.

 

I think it's yet another example of how the basic guideline that "it's your cache, you decide how to describe it" is the best available, and I think that any move to formalise anything else, will probably /a/ fail and /b/ be generally not a good idea.

 

It's frustrating to see a few caches near a town which you're visiting and think, oh, if only they were in English I could go for them. But you could say the same about a cache with 5* terrain or "no dogs allowed" or a 12-stage multi when you only have a 30-minute layover, or, or, or.

 

In a way it's cool that we get "worried" by this, much like when someone places a very hard cache close to your house; you could ignore it, but the thought of doing it won't stop eating away at you. It's one of the better problems to have in your life.

[+fizzymagic]

It's frustrating to see a few caches near a town which you're visiting and think, oh, if only they were in English I could go for them.

In my various travels, those are exactly the caches I enjoy the most! They are the ones that are most likely to lead me to something interesting locally that is off the beaten path.

 

Part of the fun I have in planning a trip to a foreign country is in searching the site for such caches, figuring out what the description says, and planning for the hunt. Having everything handed to me on a platter in English would actually reduce my enjoyment at a real challenge!

 

*** Obligatory rant ***

In fact, doing caches in the language native to the place you are visiting seems to me to be exactly the spirit of geocaching. For me, the sport is about taking me somewhere I have never been and presenting me a challenge in figuring out how to get to the location and to find the cache. It's not about having my hand held, with parking coordinates, exact directions, spoiler pictures, and descriptions conveneniently given to me in my native tongue.

*** End of rant ***

 

While I only speak English and French fluently, I've found caches with descriptions only in Icelandic, German, Catalan, Dutch, and Spanish. And those have been some of my favorite caches ever.

[terrible2u]

While I only speak English and French fluently, I've found caches with descriptions only in Icelandic, German, Catalan, Dutch, and Spanish. And those have been some of my favorite caches ever.

 

very cool! ist that because you are from california?

 

i mean, what speaks against getting to meet a local, able to speak your language, have a beer together and pull out your descriptions saying: "uhm, if you dont mind, could you help me with this? the beer is my shout.."

 

part of travelling in my eyes is to get to know not only the country but also the people living there! and that has not to be limited to the receptionist at your stay. altough she might be very pretty..

[+Geovius]

I would also like to see that all the caches has description written in at least one of the local languages and English too. But making English as required language would not work.

 

Perhaps we could encourage people write descriptions in English some other way. Perhaps search feature would return first caches which have local and English description, after those rest of the caches.

 

Or perhaps a hider could get some special merits in the stats page if cache is written with several languages.

[+Glenn]

I would also like to see that all the caches has description written in at least one of the local languages and English too. But making English as required language would not work.

 

Perhaps we could encourage people write descriptions in English some other way. Perhaps search feature would return first caches which have local and English description, after those rest of the caches.

 

Or perhaps a hider could get some special merits in the stats page if cache is written with several languages.

 

You are assuming that everyone who uses GC.com is fluent in English. After living in Italy for a few years I can make sense out of some of the Italian webpages I visit on occasion but I'm not at the level where I can hold a conversation in Italian.

[+Geovius]

You are assuming that everyone who uses GC.com is fluent in English. After living in Italy for a few years I can make sense out of some of the Italian webpages I visit on occasion but I'm not at the level where I can hold a conversation in Italian.

 

Actually I am not assuming because I am not fluent either. Because of that I said that requiring to use English doesn't work. But we can encourage people to use it! Like I use it despite the errors. Is it wrong to encourage people to use or learn English? Writing an English description is not hard in most cases, it just requires some cut/paste operation.