Mostly To The German Members.

[Simcity3]

This is not meant to be insulting or anything but just a general question. Im involved with several types of forums and online games and im starting to see quite alot that you have a topic going fine in english for multiple pages and then all of the sudden someone comes writing in german. Also in games and stuff you talk in english and someone reply's in german. Anyone knows what is up with this because it's starting to get anoying. I dont hate germans or anything but that dosent mean i wanna read their language when i was writting in another. Br, Sim.

[SF]

Vas es los??? Hijole, Que onda? What in the wide wide world of sports is a going on???

[ilikekicks]

Shise in me leader hosen

[dww]

I cannot speak German apart from a few words, but if I read it I can normally work out whats being said, this does not work with French Spanish etc.

[meganiwish]

I keep having a similar problem. I'll be happily typing und dann plotzlich kommt alles in deutscher Sprache. It just happened again. I can only imagine it must be some problem with the internet. I wish they'd sort it out as it can be most embarassing.

[mlroseplant]

I keep having a similar problem. I'll be happily typing und dann plotzlich kommt alles in deutscher Sprache. It just happened again. I can only imagine it must be some problem with the internet. I wish they'd sort it out as it can be most embarassing.

Megan, you are such a hoot!

[at9]

Could be worse.You could suddenly switch to Russian, or even arabic. Megan, as a special gift to you when you have this problem with german I hereby present you with a matching pair of: öö

[Shafted]

This is not meant to be insulting or anything but just a general question.

Im involved with several types of forums and online games and im starting to see quite alot that you have a topic going fine in english for multiple pages and then all of the sudden someone comes writing in german.

Also in games and stuff you talk in english and someone reply's in german.

Anyone knows what is up with this because it's starting to get anoying.

I dont hate germans or anything but that dosent mean i wanna read their language when i was writting in another.

Br,

Sim.

All I can say that this is an English language forum. Other languages will be deleted. (Forum rules)

[Guest]

Shafted I would offer that if any of our english as a 2nd language members are having difficulties finding the correct word or phrase translation, tolerance should be used accordingly. Google translate and Bablefish are not perfect and occasionally there is no true translation as the meaning, maybe it's regional but not global. BSL for instance has shortcuts that is only local, 10 miles down the road those are recognised as nonunderstandable rubbish. Al

[Shafted]

As you pointed out Al, there are translation tools on the internet. Also as you pointed out they are not perfect. Imperfect will be tolerated, non-English languages will not. Even imperfect translations will at least be in English. It will be up to us as members to take those translations with a grain of salt.

[Dr. Shoe]

Indeed. I see some appalling English on some forums but on the whole I am very impressed with the written English of most posters for whom English is not a first language. Conversely, I know many english speaking posters who are barely literate.

[meganiwish]

Guessing that internet translation tools say more about the language put in, I tried an experiment with google translate. I gave it the first few lines of Yeat's The Stolen Child:

Where dips the rocky highland

Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,

There lies a leafy island

Where flapping herons wake

The drowsy water rat;

There we've hid our faery vats.

Full of berries

And of reddest stolen cherries.

Then I tested it against each of the languages that I'm mistress of. The first thing I noticed is that you have to be careful about punctuation. They all made a fair bash at the first five lines. 'Sleuth Wood' gave them problems if I wasn't careful about capitals, and Welsh saw 'dips' as a plural noun, giving an ungrammatical Welsh sentence. But only Welsh managed 'There we've hid our faery vats'. Latin got the concept but was stumped by 'we've'. None of them except Welsh coped with 'faery' and 'reddest' seemed problematic.

It seems to be register sensitive. I suppose if you were to tune in to the register you could get quite accurate translation, but there's no room for nuance. I prefer less than perfect English from non-native speakers You can still tune into the person. Exciting languaage use is all about judicious rule breaking.

Anyway, I don't like those tools because they steal my toast soldiers while I'm boiling my egg. Put that into a translator.

[mlroseplant]

I have not tried Google Translate or Bing with an Indo-European language, but I imagine it's closer than what you get from any Far East language to English. Try running Vietnamese through Google Translate, and you'll find out the true meaning of gibberish. Why, just today I had an American Facebook friend try to translate something I had posted in Vietnamese language. He thought I was talking about catfish in black bean sauce (does such a thing exist?), when I was actually talking about my niece who is currently a student in Canada. Nice, Nice, Very Nice.

[Tom-NL]

A (IMNSHO) wise person once wrote on her forum:

"Posts in any language welcome. It's an international board, but use English if you can - it's more likely to get a response."

Much better rule.

[meganiwish]

It would make it diffcult for the mods to monitor what's going on.

[Shafted]

It would make it diffcult for the mods to monitor what's going on.

Yes it would.

[quidam]

Denn mein post ist kaputt? Speakez-vous le French?

[meganiwish]

All I can say that this is an English language forum.

To change that would be to change the fundamental nature of the site. Effectively, the site is an open conversation. Within any conversation a language is agreed upon. Sometimes an interpreter might be needed, but for two or more people to start conversing in another language is the height of bad manners. If you want to talk in another language you retire and do it in private. So it is in the physical world, so it should be here.

[Simcity3]

This was the last place id expect people to not be open minded. Open minded about shoes yes. Other things no. I can understand german thats no problem. I know most of the northern european languages so that part was never the issue here. I must admit that i find the fact the people started writing german in this post quite condescending considering the subject. But it dosent matter. Il find a place where i can discuss this with people who wont make fun of me for something i find to be a serious issue atleast for me. So thx for nothing.

[meganiwish]

I don't think anyone intended any condescension, neither was anyone making fun of you, merely taking a lighthearted tone towards an issue that they have little control over. I think the major part of the thread fairly discusses the point you made, in relation to this forum at least. As Shafted pointed out, here something can be done, namely deleting non-English posts. Elsewhere, I don't know, beside asking people not to change language in mid conversation, which I agree is bad manners. But then so is throwing your rattle out of the pram when you don't get quite the tone you wanted.

[Shafted]

This was the last place id expect people to not be open minded. Open minded about shoes yes. Other things no.

I can understand german thats no problem. I know most of the northern european languages so that part was never the issue here.

I must admit that i find the fact the people started writing german in this post quite condescending considering the subject.

But it dosent matter. Il find a place where i can discuss this with people who wont make fun of me for something i find to be a serious issue atleast for me.

So thx for nothing.

Yes, your right. I'm not open to it. I only speak english, I'm dead set against having to google translate every non-English post for moderation purposes It's up to the posters. What is very little effort for an individual poster would be a huge effort for us mods.

[SF]

so much for "tolerance." so sad...

[Bubba136]

Bravo! Well said. Very diplomatic Meganiwish.

Edited February 16, 2013 by Bubba136

[meganiwish]

Thank you, Bubba, I did worry I might have been being incendiary. You're a gent.

[Shafted]

so much for "tolerance." so sad...

Why, because you want the mods to do your work. That is sad.

I mean come on, did you even read any of the rest of this thread or were you just responding to the original complaint?

[meganiwish]

I've lost track of who's on whose 'side'. A bit more judicious use of 'quote' might help, but still I thought we were on the same side

I mean come on, did you even read any of the rest of this thread or were you just responding to the original complaint?

And some intelligent reading.

[CrazyIcecap]

so much for "tolerance." so sad...

It is not about tolerance, it is about the practical side. Nobody can expect that the mods in this board understand all languages, and you cannot expect them to run every non-english posting through translation tools in order to do their job - a job for which they not only get no money, but spend their free time on - , let alone the misunderstandings said translators can produce. If you sign up for a message board, then you agree to the rules. If the rules say "No foreign languages, only english", then you have to follow that rule. Just because there are some boards where these rules are less strict doesn't mean that every board has to be like that.

That's not discrimination.

[ilikekicks]

Im going to say something from my own learnings about this and why I might believe the Modz here might have a reason as to why they only want one language used.

This was the last place id expect people to not be open minded. Open minded about shoes yes. Other things no.

I can understand german thats no problem. I know most of the northern european languages so that part was never the issue here.

But do others know those languages? ( more on this in a bit ).

I must admit that i find the fact the people started writing german in this post quite condescending considering the subject.

But it dosent matter. Il find a place where i can discuss this with people who wont make fun of me for something i find to be a serious issue atleast for me.

So thx for nothing.

I'm not going to make fun of you or anyone else in regards to this subject.

I used to participate on a forum that was ' multi national '. People from all over the world. It was a torrent site. The site was closed down for legalities and doesnt need to be named.

The greatest problem wasnt the fact they were moving all kinds of stolen software. The problem was in their forums, there were so many different languages and it was a HUGE site.

Finally, a rule was brought down and the theme of 1 language was put to fruition to put everything/everyone on the same page.

They chose a language that was common to all the moderators ( not quite common to all the users though ) but it made for easier maintenance and keeping things in order.

I understand that people might not know other languages. I understand 3 ( Hebrew, Spanish and English ) but am only truly fluent in.. well.. Im best at just 1 of them , English. So, thats what I stick with.

Moderators really dont want many languages to have to deal with. As you stated, it does get annoying. Your not discriminating against anyone or any language, your just expressing how you feel about it. I can honestly say I know EXACTLY how you feel as I sometimes asked questions and had answers given in language I had no clue as to what they were!

I did post in German ( sort of ) saying I crapped my drawers. I have before and I will probably again someday .

Nobody is trying to be condescending or flaming you. Having a bit of fun, sure, but nothing meant to be cruel in anyway.

Weinerschnitzel!

-Ilk