Formal language for the Community

#1

Recently there has been a lot of heated discussion on how english is the standard language in Anker community. I can understand since the company is based out of US and majority of people are from US. But there are a few things that we all should probably consider now:

  1. Anker is serving a lot of countries outside US where english is not the primary language
  2. Anker is manufacturing products in a non english speaking country
  3. It is probably not fair to ask people to communicate in english even if they are not comfortable
  4. We have some active multi lingual community members who can help
  5. Anker’s product manual is also in several different languages
  6. Some of our other members do post in non english language and there is no backlash then why reprimand new members
  7. People will not support a company if they cannot communicate with them comfortably

I know I also asked people to write in english but as I thought more about it I realized may be its time to change the rules a bit.

I can understand when we were a small family(community) then english was probably fine, but if Anker wants to expand internationally then anker and us need to support other languages as well.

Tagging some of our experienced community friends on what they think about this
@AnkerOfficial, @ndalby, @TechnicallyWell, @elmo41683, @fhassm, @Jesse_Hernandez1, @nigelhealy, @joshuad11

Others are also welcome to say what they feel. :slight_smile:

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#2

What we shouldn’t tolerate is people using abusive and vulgar language towards the community and it’s friendly members even when certain members were speaking in Spanish to help this person out and make them feel comfortable as English wasn’t they’re native language.

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#3

Good point. I agree :sunglasses::raised_hands::clap:

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#4

The specific person you briefly mentioned, was actually able to converse easily in English, plus as @Macgyver15 pointed out, others haven’t cursed Anker (as I’ve said before, I do use swear words, but I dont swear AT Anker (in the collective)).

I think having English as the rule for the default language is correct.

Anker in Asia have their own thing. That’s the only area where English isn’t taught generally. Whereas almost all European and southern America, Africa, are taught English in schools.

English is the international language of business (not just because of USA either). Many many years ago, it was french, and biblical times it was Greek (you thought Roman didnt you!).

I understand how you may want to compromise, but there needs to be a fixed language. Otherwise madness can ensure.

It’s great that lots speak other languages, but the vast majority don’t. So to have an open forum/community, we need one language and no more.

I do ask others who have written in non English, to correct it. To be fair, most who do speak other languages, do ask the poster, rewrites in English,and that English is the language of here.

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#5

I am honestly on the bar with this I guess. The biggest reason is solely on my inability to speak other languages. Yes, I could go and find a translator site to try and identify what is being said, but I do not always wish to take the time to do so and would rather rely on someone here to help out instead. I do not have anything against others using this forum this way, but I usually just keep out of the conversation. The only thing that doesn’t happen in this instance is if someone needs help and I am in a position to do so I will most likely miss it.

Anker is incidentally a Chinese company, with servicing all over the world, but this forum tends to lean more towards english (.com is a US domain, with english being the most used). I would like to think the main reason people request english is because it is one that the largest group of people who frequent this site use, so being able to help and share information is most easily done in this method to reach the most individuals. I agree with Macgyver that we shouldn’t be mean towards anyone within this forum for any reason, since we gather here mainly to talk electronics and socialize a little bit. That said, most times I have seen new posters use another language a moderator or high level poster will ask many times to use english, but I typically do not see it done maliciously.

After writing this I am coming to a conclusion that this is harder to handle than expected. A suggested fix going forward may be to have a translate function embedded into our reply windows to alleviate some headaches.

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#6

100% agree @Macgyver15.
Abusive and vulgar language should not be tolerated in the community at all. We all should politely request if the person can write in english and if not then just let our multi talented multi-linguals take over :slight_smile:

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#7

While I agree on the whole with several points you have made (good post by the way :thumbsup:) numerous difficulties have been mentioned in older posts as to becoming a wider multilingual community (not saying it won’t happen in the future)
multilingual moderators, the fact that the core member base is US users
to name a few


While it’s preferred members post in English (as it is the widest used language among members here), users are welcome to post in their mother tongue but including translations for others would be courteous gesture (if they can’t understand what we are saying, it could go to reason, that the same could be said for us as a whole :wink:)

In regards to recent new members speaking in their “mother” tongue, only one comes to mind who seems to have ‘flustered’ a number members and that is mainly due to the users abusive posts, general attitude and contradictory comments
while English may not be their main language it is no excuse for their general attitude and the content of some of their posts when users were attempting to assist
posts which have to present, on the whole, contained the same general theme (insert your own thoughts here)


As you mentioned several members do sometimes revert to their own language but in an overall jovial way, such as jokes, comments and the like
the majority of the time however they are courteous to follow what seems to the be general consensus of what is the preferred language here, based on the bulk of posts made daily


Just my two cents after a quick read on the fly
perhaps more will break through the mist in my brain tomorrow :grin:

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#8

I tried to accommodate that user, but their language turned aggressive so o ended that. While I may be Spanish, I do not speak or read the language so I did use a translator. And while I don’t mind doing so for most people, if we ask them nicely to either speak English or translate what they post and then backlash against us that is the end of being nice. Such vulgarity and aggressiveness will not be tolerated.

Going forward I wouldn’t mind seeing an auto translator built into the forum, I had one when I ran a game for Facebook many years ago, but it’s a lot harder to implement and maintain
 Something I never wish to do again. But if Anker is willing then I’m sure something can come about from it. But for now, majority is English and I would like to see that continue

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#9

I always remind people that there is neither an official language nor an official religion of the United States. This makes racists uncomfortable, obviously with our current political climate over here. Anyone that insists English be an official language of anything based on their being “American” doesn’t understand what it means to be an American. Even though I’m of European origin (i.e. white), my people have been here since the 1600’s. I figure I have as much authority to speak about what’s appropriate as an American of European origin. I say without reservation: only someone who is fundamentally unamerican would insist that English is our official language. Ignorance is no excuse.

This brings up a more interesting question. There are people living in the United states whose ancestors predate mine on this continent by over ten thousand years (originating from the Clovis people). Aren’t they more “American” than I am? Which clarifies the point I’m making - it’s not about the language, it’s about racism. That’s unacceptable.

So communicate in all the languages as far as I’m concerned. I can read Spanish and will use a translation service for everything else. If some people don’t like it, too bad. It’s not like you aren’t buying products from Shenzhen anyway.

Thanks @rupinjohar for the rant opportunity. It’s good to get it out sometimes.

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#10

Hmmm in fairness this is a contentious area as there will be people on both sides of the fence. I understand that the vast majority speak English which is why members are asked to post in English. But I realise for some that it’s not there first language so they find it easier to stray from the norm.

I will be honest in that I normally just skip over any posts that aren’t in English :grimacing: not that I can provide the most technical advice anyway lol

Seems like I’ve missed most of the recent events in relation to people using foul language.

On a side note - 2 weeks to Christmas :santa:t2:

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#11

[quote=“rupinjohar, post:1, topic:64300”]
I realized may be its time to change the rules
[/quote]Wasn’t ever aware of any official rules.

Since the majority of users are English (I assume), I would think it would be easier to have the poster translate their text (via something like a simple online translator) prior to submitting it. We don’t care if it’s not proper English, as long as the point is being delivered. Those are just my thoughts, but I don’t think people should overreact to someone else for posting in another language, especially if they are new to the Community.

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#12

Personally I just ignore non-English.

Ignore does not mean anti, nor against.

So for me you’re welcome to use any language but realize you are going to be exchanging with fewer community members.

The other thing is getting Anker’s support, they are a Chinese homed business and they sell into specific countries so you’d be best using Chinese, English or one of the ones they sell into, of which many of them 2nd language is English anyway.

I would be against any anti-language rule, so against “English only” rule as that smacks of colonial arrogance. No. We can meet here in any language just know the above facts.

Arguably, if we were all to move to a different language it would be Chinese.

Wǒ xiĂ nzĂ i zuĂŹ hǎo kāishǐ xuĂ©xĂ­

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#13

My intention was not to talk about a specific incident but saying more generally that maybe its time for us to open our doors for other languages (based on several non english posts)

@ndalby - agree with your overall thought. yes some members do post non English comments in a jovial manner and there is nothing wrong in that. But then shouldn’t we let people post their problems/question in non-english as well ? Cannot have different rules for some members just because they are more senior/experienced/active members.

@ryandhazen - very well said. You have a valid point.

@joshuad11 - agreed maybe people use online translator. Generally we dont need to overreact if we see a post in non english language.

Overall, I think most of us tend to ignore non english comments because we dont undertand that language and not because we dont want to help.

It is a little surprising that Anker devices have its manual in multiple languages, giveaways are held for non english speaking countries, we all want Anker to be popular in all the countries but still this community is centered around English language.

Maybe its time to have some kind of translator in this message box or a separate section in this community for other languages. We want to have one Anker family where there is space for everyone (english and non english speakers).

Managing Multiple languages in a community will be a little challenging. But then we cannot expect to become a leader in a non english speaking country without letting people speak their language for help.

@AnkerOfficial, @fhassm what do you think ?

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#14

[quote=“rupinjohar, post:13, topic:64300”]
I think most of us tend to ignore non english comments because we dont undertand that language and not because we dont want to help
[/quote]100% agree. That or we’re too lazy to use an online translator ourselves :joy:

#15

@joshuad11 Guess its the latter unfortunately :slight_smile:

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#16

Same for me. I’m not comfortable communicating in Spanish anymore simply because I’m too rusty with it. That’s the only other language I’m vaguely familiar with, so anything that isn’t in English I just skip.

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#17

I totally agree with you. I tend to do the same. Sometimes I’ll use a translator but most of the time, I find myself just moving on to the next post. Therefore, if you want to use another language besides English, by all means, go ahead. Just don’t expect as many replies.

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#18

As far as I can recall no one has ever flat out said they can’t, it’s only been advised in replies to post in English to gain more uptake and responses
as mentioned by a few in this thread if it’s non-English often it’s ignored or skipped by them, which doesn’t really help with support for the user asking the question.

The majority of non-English thread’s I normally use a translator on, to support if possible and to make sure the poster is confirming to the general rules of the forum but as mentioned by a few a built in translator would be good
of which I believe there is a plugin for the Discourse platform, so perhaps it may make a appearance at some stage :wink:

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#19

I would keep the English language though I am German.

If someone has a question and he doesn’t speak English he might use a translator.
Not we should translate, HE should.

There are many languages in the world.

I am not willing to translate a question someone asked here.
I will simply ignore it.

When we allow to write statements in different languages it will lead to a huge confusion.

Mainly we are discussing technical problems, so English is easy to use for everybody.

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#20

Thank you for bringing in this discussion about multiple languages in the community. I can see many of you have mentioned the points that I want to say. We’re mainly using English as the communication language in this community because English is the most widely used language in most cases. We do understand there are people from other parts of world whose native language is not English, so we do not strictly restrict the usage of other languages. But I believe one of the main purpose that most of you come here is communication. Due to this factor, we think using English to communicate in this community will be much easier and more comfortable for most of the people. So we still recommend we all use English to communicate in this community for now. And we will consider opening multi-language sections in the future when this community grows bigger.

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