Language recognition

[+kwgust]

It just came into my mind, so I put the question here.

While visiting foreign countries almost all of the listings are written in the local language.  Is there an easy method to find out caches whose listings contain an english version, too!

If there is one, please tell me how to manage.
If not, wouldn't it be a good idea to create an attribute for these special caches to pick them out easily and/or even to motivate cache owners to provide an English version, too!
As I said, this just came into my mind. 

[+hzoi]

5 hours ago, kwgust said:

Is there an easy method to find out caches whose listings contain an english version, too!

 

I assume you mean, other than by reading them.

 

Some owners may have chosen the "Tourist friendly" attribute for this; you can try running a pocket query for caches containing this attribute:

 

 

and seeing what you get.

 

Otherwise, there are plenty of threads already in this forum on ways to get caches translated to English (or your other language of choice), so rather than add another post to the several I've done earlier, I'll give you a link.

 

Search results for Translation

[+dprovan]

I don't worry about what language the description is in. If I find a version in my language, that's a bonus. Otherwise I'm exposed to the local language which might sometimes be useful in finding the cache and is almost always useful for reminding me I should know the local language better. Worst case, I just have to wing it based on nothing but where to look with the occasional hint from a log posted in my language.

 

If there was an attribute that allowed me to filter out caches with descriptions I couldn't read, using it would make me feel like I'm boycotting caches just because the CO didn't fall all over themselves to accommodate unappreciative foreigners. Even if I can't read the description at all, I'm still thankful the cache was posted for me with the one universal language of geocaching: coordinates.

[+kwgust]

1 hour ago, dprovan said:

Even if I can't read the description at all, I'm still thankful the cache was posted for me with the one universal language of geocaching: coordinates.

I agree in many of your statements, but solving a mystery or the puzzles of a multi-cache in a foreign language is a little different than mere searching at given coordinates.
And - of course I am thankful for every single cache being published, no matter of the language being used. 
And - I know that there are tools that allow you to translate different languages into your language, but very seldom with satisfying results. 

And - I am not a language talent who has the adequate time to dive deeper into a language to understand even the basics of it before visiting this country.
 

And as I said... it just came into my mind this morning. 
 

[+hal-an-tow]

11 hours ago, kwgust said:

It just came into my mind, so I put the question here.

While visiting foreign countries almost all of the listings are written in the local language.  Is there an easy method to find out caches whose listings contain an english version, too!

If there is one, please tell me how to manage.
If not, wouldn't it be a good idea to create an attribute for these special caches to pick them out easily and/or even to motivate cache owners to provide an English version, too!
As I said, this just came into my mind. 

I'd rather like to see such an attribute, but not just for flagging up English language caches outside England ...

What with caching being a global game, an attribute could indicate the description is in more than only the local tongue, be that a French cache with Italian translation or whatever.

 

As an aside, I know of one cache listing site where it is possible for the C.O. to provide the description in alternative languages, and for the cache page reader to select the one they prefer. I've no idea if it gets used much, but it's an interesting option to have.

 

55 minutes ago, kwgust said:

 

And - I am not a language talent who has the adequate time to dive deeper into a language to understand even the basics of it before visiting this country.
 

I'm far from good at languages, hated being obliged to study French and German at school,  but see it as a minimal courtesy to the inhabitants to learn the basics for anywhere I travel.

[+kwgust]

2 minutes ago, hal-an-tow said:

I'm far from good at languages, hated being obliged to study French and German at school,  but see it as a minimal courtesy to the inhabitants to learn the basics for anywhere I travel.

I never noticed this characteristic at any visitor from US (visitors from UK are a little better). I'm living in Munich, Germany.
Have you ever tried to learn the basic of Czech? This is hard enough - or how about Chinese or Arabic? Im 67 years old and I have to say that it's very hard to build up a small vocabulary in a foreign language at this age. I learned French, too and I don't need a translator for it either. 

 

Reading the listing of a fabulous site to visit, maybe historic place with a long description needs more then just basics. As basics of a language I understand more the saying "Hello" or order a dinner or a room. The trouble already begins understanding what the other person is talking to you in their foreign language.   

No - I didn't want to start a discussion about how to prepare for visits of foreign countries. I wanted to bring in an idea for making multi language cache listings more popular or searchable.

[+The A-Team]

1 hour ago, hal-an-tow said:

What with caching being a global game, an attribute could indicate the description is in more than only the local tongue, be that a French cache with Italian translation or whatever.

 

I like this idea. Rather than have an English-centric attribute, there could be one that's more versatile and inclusive.

[+cerberus1]

13 hours ago, kwgust said:

If not, wouldn't it be a good idea to create an attribute for these special caches to pick them out easily and/or even to motivate cache owners to provide an English version, too! 

 

We see tourist-friendly as the best possible outcome here ...          I feel it means you don't need to translate anything.  A simple cache.

No offense, but this is a world-wide hobby, and I feel it's a bit arrogant to think caches should be in any language other than local.

I believe if you're a visitor to another country, you could  take a bit of responsibility yourself,  and at least google translate.    

That doesn't mean you'd have to attempt translate to simply log a smiley... 

[+kwgust]

14 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

....

No offense, but this is a world-wide hobby, and I feel it's a bit arrogant to think caches should be in any language other than local.

...

What came into my mind was just an idea of stimulating the cache owners to offer an english version of the listing. Why? Because English ist the language that most people can understand. Of course it should not be a MUST, that's what I think would be terribly ignorant! 

Cache owners do wonderful things to make other people happy who are looking for caches. They invest much time, money, skills and ideas in their passion. Why not give them the chance to add a version of a language that most visitors are capable to understand.
 

Quote

I believe if you're a visitor to another country, you could  take a bit of responsibility yourself,  and at least google translate.    

Of course I do and I say it again that I don't get the desired results very often - sometimes the translation is like a D5 Mystery. Depends on the language to translate.
It is not my laziness or my ignorance or lack of respect that made me write my proposal. It was just an idea that somebody could pick up or not...

And yes - i know how to write logs in foreign countries, and that doesn't mean that I only would use a smiley as content of the log... ?

[+Kalkendotters]

3 hours ago, kwgust said:

Why? Because English ist the language that most people can understand. 

That is not quite the case. English is only on the 3rd place.

First is Chines/mandarin that is spoken by 17% of the world population. Followed by Spanish with 6% and then English with 5%.

(see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers )

 

It would be nice if there was an attribute for 'translated' (into anything other than the country language) but I won't hold my breath...

[+Lynx Humble]

12 minutes ago, Kalkendotters said:

That is not quite the case. English is only on the 3rd place.

First is Chines/mandarin that is spoken by 17% of the world population. Followed by Spanish with 6% and then English with 5%.

(see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers )

 

It would be nice if there was an attribute for 'translated' (into anything other than the country language) but I won't hold my breath...

If you include second-language like kwgust was referring to English is first but Mandarin is a close second.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers

[+kwgust]

17 hours ago, Kalkendotters said:

That is not quite the case. English is only on the 3rd place.

First is Chines/mandarin that is spoken by 17% of the world population. Followed by Spanish with 6% and then English with 5%.

(see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers )

Yes,  I know that and that's why I didn't use the verb "speak' but 'understand'. 

[+hzoi]

23 hours ago, Kalkendotters said:

On 6/5/2019 at 2:04 PM, kwgust said:

Why? Because English ist the language that most people can understand. 

That is not quite the case. English is only on the 3rd place.

First is Chines/mandarin that is spoken by 17% of the world population. Followed by Spanish with 6% and then English with 5%.

(see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers )

 

The definition of "native speaker" is, of course, the language that the natives speak.  The original post discusses making it easy to find caches that have not just the local language, but "an English version, too."

 

We have six years and counting of living in and traveling around Europe, as well as a year in southwest Asia and a little time in east Asia.  Where a sign or a menu has one language on it apart from the local language(s), the odds are very, very much in favor of that one other language being English.  Some examples:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 6, 2019 by hzoi

[+NYPaddleCacher]

On 6/5/2019 at 11:17 AM, Kalkendotters said:

That is not quite the case. English is only on the 3rd place.

First is Chines/mandarin that is spoken by 17% of the world population. Followed by Spanish with 6% and then English with 5%.

(see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers ) 

 

Nevertheless, English is the standard language for "business".   I've been to China three times and spent a lot of time in meetings and conferences, and they were all conducted in English.  

 

That said,   creating a attribute for caches with listings in English just wouldn't be practical.  Creating a  fool proof way to automatically detect if the description is in English would be a challenge, and if it's not automatic,  cache owners aren't going to edit all of the existing cache listings.

 

I also don't consider this to be a problem that needs to be solved, and disagree that "almost all the cache listings are written in the local language".   Yes, some multi and puzzle caches are going to be more difficult if you don't understand the language they're written in. My answer to that is simply that one does not have to find every cache.   There are other caches that can be found, and speaking for myself, when I'm in a foreign country (over 30 visited in the last 15 years)  I really don't want to spend the entire time geocaching.  

[+cghove]

I preplan a trip, and use google translate on the description/neccesary parts, and runit to google translate, then store the translation as a printdescription on cachetur.no....