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Is Only English a Limitation

by tk226
17 replies
People from different background, culture, and languages access internet on a day to day basis and many top sites have localized version of their website. But, have you given a thought to make your product also available in other leading languages of the world apart from English?
#english #limitation
  • Profile picture of the author meph
    Google automatically offers the option to translate, so no, I dont usually create a translated version of my site.
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  • Profile picture of the author DukkyMan
    Well you have to consider that if google just automatically switches your work from English to another language that what you are trying to say could easily be lost in translation.

    Though I've never used google to translate anything, so I'm not sure how it works exactly.
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    • Profile picture of the author jdenc
      We have a large and growing Hispanic community here. Many of them are primarily Spanish speakers. So when I talk to local businesses about their online presence we tend to touch on it. If they have someone on staff who speaks Spanish I recommend that we set up their site to read in Spanish as well as English. If they don't, I don't. Reason being if you can't help them when they call or drop by in that language then going to trouble to translate doesn't get you much in most applications. You just end up with a frustrated customer and you are trying to explain your service or product to them through a third party, often a child. Just not good business.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kieron
        Hi there,

        I have promoted Internet Marketing Seminars and SEO workshops using Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish and Russian and while I did generate good business from these markets it takes a lot to support all the various languages. Four years on I finally stayed with the english version and can say I have not noticed any decrease in business.
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        • Profile picture of the author Michael Shook
          Their probably are languages other than English where products could be presented with the chance of making a good profit. Just because a product gets translated into another language, however, does not mean people who speak and read that language will want it. And you might wind up pending a lot of time searching for another language to translate into that would produce a good profit.

          if you have money to invest in researching other market channels to promote your product, this could be money well spent with a good chance at recouping your cost. But if you don't have money to reinvest in researching another market channel, this idea will probably not help you much.
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  • Profile picture of the author tk226
    Thanks for all the replies, I wonder, if this problem can be resolved by selling complete rights of the product to another who can carry it on its own terms in his chosen language.
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by tk226 View Post

    But, have you given a thought to make your product also available in other leading languages of the world apart from English?
    Okay, let's see.

    1. Rewrite my sales page in another language.
    2. Rewrite my product in another language.
    3. Rewrite the bonuses in another language if I can get the rights.
    4. Rewrite all my autoresponder emails in another language.
    5. Send all my broadcasts to a translator before they go out on my list.

    Yeah... no. Not gonna do it. Wouldn't be prudent. All that work and effort could be used to create a new product instead, and make all my English-speaking customers happy - instead of just acquiring a tiny little minority of non-English-speaking customers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Pete Lauder
    With all Googles continuous advances, they will already be working on a live translation search page.

    In the future, results from around the globe will be displayed, all from foreign languages, translated into your chosen language, it's inevitable.

    So the answer is to sit, and wait for Google to release the technology, then your material can really populate the globe.

    Pete
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    • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
      Originally Posted by Pete Lauder View Post

      With all Googles continuous advances, they will already be working on a live translation search page.

      In the future, results from around the globe will be displayed, all from foreign languages, translated into your chosen language, it's inevitable.

      So the answer is to sit, and wait for Google to release the technology, then your material can really populate the globe.

      Pete
      That's kinda futuristic... or should I say sounds like a sci-fi?
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        [DELETED]
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        • Profile picture of the author Sudarmaji_Lamiran
          one way to avoid this daunting task is
          create a product and deliver it in
          simple, plain, basic English.
          it means:
          1. avoid complicated grammars2
          2. do not use advanced or new-words lingo
          3. control your slank languages
          4. give a short note (rare heh?)
          5. spice it up with illustrations
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  • Profile picture of the author pana
    it depends on what your marketing.. and what your trying to make money with..
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  • Profile picture of the author Natlex
    I did some non english ad sense websites recently and they work very well. The only problem is finding back links is easier... It seems your almost forced to back link/profile spam which I don't like doing.
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    • Profile picture of the author Wechito
      Using only English is enough, but using also other languages will expand your market.
      The Spanish market, for example, is a big one but it is really difficult to find good online information in Spanish for a lot of topics.
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  • Profile picture of the author evalauran
    It's true English becomes global language but as per the my point of view local language effect also same as well as English or some times it totally depends upon area or locality .
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  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    I've got news for you! It is ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE for something like Google to translate all your pages to another language. It will NEVER HAPPEN!

    WHY?

    FIRST, it has to convert words and grammar. That ITSELF is absurdly complicated, and I don't think I have EVER seen it done right. That is ALL "language converters" currently ever ATTEMPT to do!

    THEN, it has to convert localized ideas. It is hard enough for a PERSON to do that! I speak english, for example, but some british sites talk about local traditions, places, etc... Converting that to what the average american would understand is NOT that simple. Has ANY program ANYWHERE ever done that?

    There is slang and idioms. Even some NATIVES don't understand that stuff.

    How about applicable laws? If anyone could do that, it would put every lawyer on the entire planet out of business.

    How about pictures, and colors? Yeah, one slip could be blasphemous, illegal, or insulting! Green, Purple, Yellow, and some patterns, are just problematic in some cultures.

    And what about values like sales taxes, vat, shipping, etc? That would require a standardized interface that does NOT exist or programming leger demain that would put programmers out of business.

    Ss it just won't ever happen. HECK, they are only NOW trying to do that last step for the US! YEP, that's right! ONE country can't even do that! Different items are taxable, they are taxed at different levels, and different rates, etc... HECK, some areas even have a day where certain taxes don't have to be collected.

    And I didn't even discuss language direction, detection, parsing, or picture alignment.

    And The internet ALREADY covers SOME of the ideas I listed here! Do you think they have codes for languages? ******NO WAY******! They have codes for LOCALE! So it includes language AND country. English, in the following locale list has FOURTEEN variants! Arabic has even MORE variants.

    http://www.science.co.il/language/locale-codes.asp

    Still, that doesn't cover the THOUSANDS that would be needed for just the US to handle just ENGLISH for the conditions I mention above, since many things may change for CITIES. BTW the LCID string is the standard one on the internet.

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    All that's true, Steven!

    Only monolingual people who don't have an understanding even for their own mother tongue will ever think that machine translation works.
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