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I'm lovin' it


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Today I thought, that it was time for some good vibrations. So, I will share one of my latest Waymarking stories. Don't hate me, if you think it is a boring story. :-)

 

Every now and then I pick a category in which I haven't posted a waymark yet and try to fill that spot. My last choice was "Architecture Prizes". I started from the top and in the very first list (Pritzker Architecture Prize winners) I found Hans Hollein, a famous Austrian architect. YES!!!

 

Next step was to look for a building that was designed by him. He designed many buildings around the world, but I wanted to find one in my hometown Wien. I found a few early works that aren't that exciting and then there was the Haas-Haus. YES!!! It looks awesome, is in the center of the city, easy to find by tourists and easy to photograph because there is a lot of room around it.

 

My next thought was "Oh, and now I will check Waymarking.com and see that some other waymarker has already posted it in this category". I checked and there are two waymarks for the Haas-Haus, but not in the category "Architecture Prizes". YES!!!!

 

So, the next day I grabbed my camera and went to work and after finishing work I went to the Haas-Haus and took some photos in perfect weather. YES!!!

 

And now for the description. Should I use the discription of Wikipedia? There's quite a long article in the German Wikipedia and a rather short one in the English Wikipedia. But most of all: The two other waymarks of the Haas-Haus have also used the German text and a good translation. I would never copy a translation from another waymarker AND I wanted to have a different text anyway. So I searched and found a nice description on the website of the architect Hans Hollein himself. YESSSSSS!!!! AND they even have the description in German AND English. WooooHOOOO!!! Who could describe the building better than the architect himself.

 

Sooooo, now I have all I need to complete this waymark and guess what, if it will be approved, it will be the first Austrian waymark in this category....

 

I'm lovin' it!!!

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Could I suggest that in the short description of this building that the German text be placed before the English translation. I just feel that the language of the country of origin should be the first in both the Quick and the Long Descriptions if the waymarker is able to have multi-lingual text. I only have (a version, a variation, or perhaps a corruption of) English as a language, and a lot of Waymarking is centred on the English language, but I do think it is important to preserve the original language as a part of the waymark as it belongs there!

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Could I suggest that in the short description of this building that the German text be placed before the English translation. I just feel that the language of the country of origin should be the first in both the Quick and the Long Descriptions if the waymarker is able to have multi-lingual text. I only have (a version, a variation, or perhaps a corruption of) English as a language, and a lot of Waymarking is centred on the English language, but I do think it is important to preserve the original language as a part of the waymark as it belongs there!

 

Before I do that: Is there any rule (unwritten or written somewhere) that says whether English or the local language should be first? I have 500+ waymarks and the majority is in two languages. I never paid much attention to the order of languages, but if I start to make all my waymarks look the same, I want to make sure that what I do is correct.

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Could I suggest that in the short description of this building that the German text be placed before the English translation. I just feel that the language of the country of origin should be the first in both the Quick and the Long Descriptions if the waymarker is able to have multi-lingual text. I only have (a version, a variation, or perhaps a corruption of) English as a language, and a lot of Waymarking is centred on the English language, but I do think it is important to preserve the original language as a part of the waymark as it belongs there!

 

Before I do that: Is there any rule (unwritten or written somewhere) that says whether English or the local language should be first? I have 500+ waymarks and the majority is in two languages. I never paid much attention to the order of languages, but if I start to make all my waymarks look the same, I want to make sure that what I do is correct.

There is no rule. There is no right or wrong. A few categories do have language requirements, but none of them care about the order.

 

Most of my waymarks are bilingual and I always do English first. I don't have any good reason for it, this just became my standard by accident. When I started there were not many waymarkers and officers outside the English speaking world. So I did everything in English. Later I began to submit bilingual waymarks and sometimes add additional languages to existing waymarks. So the local language got in second place.

 

I have several reasons to keep it that way, but these are my reasons and not meant to be valid for anyone else: many officers cannot read the local language, also most visits I receive are from tourists, not locals. My conclusion is that the English part is more important.

 

As an officer I receive many bilingual submissions, I have the impression that there are a bit more having the local language first, but I don't have any hard numbers and it certainly is not a strong majority.

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Though I'm an English speaker in an English speaking country, I tend to agree with 3l diesel. The language of the country of the Waymark should come first in my view. The English translation is there to assist those who are unfamiliar with the country's language, but the original text is the actual rendition written by the Waymarker, best expressing their impression of the Waymark.

 

Keith

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I just checked a few of my waymarks and it's an embarrassing chaos. :huh: Within the same category I made one waymark English-German and the next one German-English. Sometimes I have English first in the short description and German first in the long description. And I don't dare to look at the titles of the photos. I agree with fi67, when he says that (in general) there is no right or wrong. But mixing within my own waymarks seems wrong to me.

 

I think I will start a standard from now on: Local language first, and then English. And over some time I will try to change my older waymarks also to that standard. I was planning to update the very old ones anyway.

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Personally, as an officer I have no problem with a Waymark being submitted in the Waymarkers mother tongue, with English (or a Google translation) added.

 

Most of those who visit will, presumably, be from that country, so their own language first makes more sense.

 

 

So, how about...

 

A French Waymarker posts a Waymark they have found in Germany.

 

English is a required, but is it submitted in the Waymarkers home language, or the language of the country the Waymark is in, or all three - And then which order? :unsure:

 

:lol:

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I don't think it makes sense to require a specific order. There are so many differences between individual waymarks in formatting and content that this specific point is totally superfluous. Especially because we cannot require any other language than English. Waymarking.com does have an English version only, so we can assume that all waymarkers do have at least some basic English knowledge and many waymarks are created by tourists without any knowledge of the local language. On the other hand we cannot ban other languages (of course, nobody would want that, just for completeness).

 

As an officer, I will accept waymarks with all combinations of languages, as long as one of them is English or the local language. I know that I maybe exceed my powers when a category does not have any language requirement, but anything else does not make sense in my opinion.

 

And I totally understand, when officers deny a waymark that is only in languages they do not understand. I have seen a lot of older waymarks in French or German only, that are completely inappropriate for the category they're in. They should never have been accepted. An officer has to know what he/she is evaluating, everything else is less important.

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Hmmm... without quoting replies, it seems there might be some sympathy to my thoughts about the local language first and then an English translation. But what has been said can't be a "rule". If a foreign visitor to a country spots a new feature eligible for a waymark, then the abilities in language of the waymarker needs to be placed first. We are not paid professionals. We are enthusiasts of a system of identifying what we call "waymarks" partly by the values of the coordinates they have on a worldwide map often as determined by a relatively precise GPS system.

 

I would encourage the use of the local language - if possible, but that is not always the case. If a waymarker with multilingual waymark texts would like to rearrange the order of presentation, then maybe work on it to the individual waymarkers satisfaction. And I certainly would not stress about the order of several languages - we are supposed to be enjoying ourselves in this hobby.

 

Having said that, language can be a funny thing. I have seen people "flare up", that is get angry, about some perceived slight against their native tongue. I have heard that because of the difficulties of translation, certain words in one language will never translate with exactly the same meaning (or feeling behind the meaning) into another. What results is comments, suggestive of the aforementioned slight, that the "other language" just isn't good enough. Very curious at times...

 

But nonetheless, if possible, I would encourage the use of the native language of the waymark. But - no "rule" of demand. Let us keep this fun, so I am absolutely sure that the original poster has many waymarks which have been written up in an eminently correct manner. Let us hope there are many more of those "YES!" moments as originally posted!

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So, how about...

 

A French Waymarker posts a Waymark they have found in Germany.

 

English is a required, but is it submitted in the Waymarkers home language, or the language of the country the Waymark is in, or all three - And then which order? :unsure:

 

:lol:

 

So far I have only done waymarks in German and English or English only. Plus one (in Sweden) in Swedish (thanks to Swedish Wikipedia) and English. I never thought about adding a German translation to that Swedish waymark, because most of the visitors will either speak Swedish or English. However, if I would ever use 3 languages I would choose the order: Local language - English - German. And if I would speak more languages I would use Local language - English - all the other languages in alphabetical order. :lol:

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