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28th April 2006

Multilingual blog



Categories : Housekeeping, Wordpress |

Discovered another cool plugin this morning, which uses Google to translate this blog into a variety of languages. So if you hail from France, Portugal, Spain, China, Korea, Italy and others you now may be able to read it in your native tongue. Very cool. Just click the flags in the top right corner.

The only initial qualm I had about it, which is a problem I have with a lot of websites and software (and which relates to a discussion I was having with Rodney a few days back) is that the default flag representing the English language was the USA flag. Fortunately I was able to change it to the UK one but it still bugged me a bit. It’s the same with lots of software programs – when you install them and there is a list of languages, the one for English will most often say “English (US).” Another example of Americocentrism. The English language comes from England so therefore should be represented by an English flag, not an American one. It would be equally as stupid to have an Australian or Canadian flag representing English. You don’t see the French language represented by the flag of Algieria, or Chad or some other ex-French colony that still speaks the language, so why should English be represented by an ex-colony like the USA rather than the flag of the country where the language originated? Anyway thanks for letting me get that off my chest – enjoy the translation. It works for the links to so you can check out Rodney’s or ob1′s blogs or others in the language of your choice – I found Mark’s About page inPortugeuse to be quite amusing for some reason.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 28th, 2006 at 11:29 am and is filed under Housekeeping, Wordpress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There are currently 7 responses to “Multilingual blog”

Why not let us know what you think by adding your own comment! Your opinion is as valid as anyone elses, so come on... let us know what you think.

  1. 1 On April 28th, 2006, effisk said:

    hehe, I just tried the French version. Here’s an excerpt re-translated into English (my comments in brackets):

    “Has dicovered another fresh (temperaturewise) plugin this morning, that hires Google to translate this blog in a variety of languages. Si if you hail (climatewise) from France, Portugal, Spain, China, Korea, Italy and others you now can read it in your mother tongue. Very fresh.

    Just catch the flags in the correct top corner.”

    Not bad for a robot, I am very impressed. It’s much better than BabelFish.

    Now regarding the flags, I suppose the US flag is being used because the developers who created this tool were in he US, and because the US are the largest English-speaking country (largest population). The US have taken over…

    There are also a few differences between US-English and British-English so it’s interesting to precise which version you’re looking at.

    But then when you think about it, we also say United States without precising “of America”. After all, there are/have been/will be other united states than the United States of America (United States of Africa / Panafrican Union, United States of Abyssinia… just to name a few.)

    I have also noticed that only US websites don’t precise the country phone extension or the country when giving addresses and phone/fax numbers.

  2. 2 On May 2nd, 2006, Trevor said:

    As a matter of fact, I am Canadian myself, but I figured that the majority of people using this plugin would be American, and would prefer the American flag to represent the default language. I am very aware of Americocentrism, as you put it, and found your post kind of funny, since I am a patriotic Canadian. It was certainly not my intention to present the US as the representatives of the English language, but simply the most populated. My blog gets way more hits from the US than from anywhere else. Anyways, that’s why I included the British and Canadian flags, so that people could easily change it to fit their loyalties. I’m glad you can make use of the plugin :)

  3. 3 On May 2nd, 2006, baggas said:

    Thanks Trevor, for your comments and for your plugin! I’m glad you included the British flag for the reasons I outlined above – even as a “patriotic” Australian I’d still prefer to use the British flag to represent the English language than I would even the Aussie flag. I certainly didn’t have a problem with you, rather this was just yet another example for me of USAmerican dominance. Anyway good to see a fellow member of the Commonwealth doing something constructive. Go Canada! ;)

  4. 4 On September 4th, 2006, Barry said:

    Nice info here. Please check “multilingual website” on http://www.wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingual_Website

  5. 5 On September 16th, 2006, TwqAWqSiM said:

    Hi
    http://google.com
    gogle

  6. 6 On September 23rd, 2006, wqntSxmMF said:

    test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test

  7. 7 On October 5th, 2006, ktMiwpAJ said:

    Hmm maybe maybe. Aber was ist das?

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