Additional languages

[pavel.samokha]

My point is - from time to time people are writing messages here in their native languages.
I believe it’s better to have special categories where those users can ask their questions if they can’t write in english.
I also assume that there may be more potential Suunto users which have questions but are not asking here because it’s an english forum.

[A Former User]

I’m in for French !

[surfboomerang]

I’m in for English and a link to Google translate for those who struggle with the English language.
Most modern translation tools are quite good. Or at least good enough to make yourself understandable.

This avoid duplicate topics in different languages

[freeheeler]

@g287-sf
your english is good enough stick with it

[freeheeler]

@surfboomerang
few times vietnamese came up, but it was always spam
Basically I think English should do it or as you say the link to e.g. google translate.
I am interested in different questions that are asked and as the majority is using English it would be nice to read questions in English, rather than having it translated by everyone of us.

[pavel.samokha]

@surfboomerang

1. That’s a point of view from a person with fluent English.
   English proficiency map (if you’re from native-english country or blue zone then you’re biased):

2. Machine Translation made a big leap in last years, but still something can be lost in translation when a newcomer is asking for help
3. Forum lacks a tooling to use machine translation
4. I don’t think we end up having a lot of duplication, english will be the main language anyway, but if someone wanna ask for help in his native language - then it’s better to have place for it

[Bulkan]

I recall the most common non English post we had were: french, spanish and greek. German showed once or twice but not like the others.

[Łukasz Szmigiel]

As far as machine translation goes, check this out:

https://www.deepl.com/translator

Not many languages but this is another level compared to Google or Microsoft translators.

[Bulkan]

I can help in spanish if it is needed.

[surfboomerang]

@pavel-samokha I agree English is not covering the whole world, but if I use google translate on your last posts with @алексей I think I can figure out what the conversation is about.

Почему я не могу обновить свои suunto 9 baro black? Программа постоянно жалуется на отсутствие соединения с интернет.
===
Why can’t i update my suunto 9 baro black? The program constantly complains about the lack of internet connection.

Windows 7 официально не поддерживается Microsoft, уже более года.
Поэтому SuuntoLink официально не поддерживает Windows 7 и может работать некорректно.
Лучший способ решить проблему - обновиться до Windows 10, благо это можно сделать бесплатно, насколько мне известно.
===
Windows 7 is not officially supported by Microsoft for over a year now.
Therefore, SuuntoLink does not officially support Windows 7 and may not work properly.
The best way to solve the problem is to upgrade to Windows 10, since this can be done for free, as far as I know.

But you are right that @алексей did post in the native language thus it is visible. We have no stats of how many people would like to post on this forum but won’t do it because they don’t speak English. The only way to figure out is try it and see where it get’s us.

I just have two concerns:

• You might get duplicate threads in multiple languages without knowing it if it is not translated automatically in-place
• How many people that do master English to some degree would switch to their own language just because it is easier for them?

[pavel.samokha]

@surfboomerang I think we should create a new language category only if there is someone on the forum who is a native speaker and ready to look after it.
And I expect these forums will be mainly for help, if there is more (like feature suggestions or bug reports) then it’s “category moderator” duty to forward the user message to english thread. The same as current moderators do when users post duplicates, in wrong category n etc.

[ink357]

In my opinion, only one language allows us to not miss any information.

It also help me to work mu english witch is not so good. When i’m really lost i use google translate or another translator. Nowadays they are quite good.

[suzzlo]

In my opinion it would be perfect if a FAQs could be created and translated to different languages. It will avoid tons of entry level repetitive questions, that are mostly the ones coming in Spanish, French, Italian… (just an opinion since I didn’t do any research)

BR

[sartoric]

@suzzlo
Unfortunately, the modern trend is “is faster to ask then to search” as we can see from all the duplicates post for topics already discussed or even in “sticky” thread

[freeheeler]

@sartoric
that’s why some customer services already hide their contact forms behind an FAQ labyrinth

[isazi]

I don’t have a strong opinion either in favor or against. A pilot thread in some language other than English could be tested, but it probably will have to be a language that some of the mods speak to avoid spam and similar.

[freeheeler]

@isazi
the disadvantage I see in a multilingual section is that I will most likely not view it as I can provide help only in english and german in am easy and quick way. my french and italian is good enough to order pizza and beer.
the result could be that english users might miss interesting questions and on the other hand the versatility of answers will be limited.
But I see an advantage to make it easier for users who do not speak english and who are not so into computers

[cosme.costa]

I think that we should stick to English.

If we start using different languages I’m quite sure that we will have tones of repeated posts for the same topic (we already have with English) and could be the case that some topics are answered/resolved in one language and not in another, so not all the users can take advantage of the discussion/answers/solutions. As others have said, using an online translator should be enough to understand nearly all the posts and if somebody is quite desperate can write in her/his mother language and, for sure, somebody will help.

So I vote to continue with English

PS: @pavel-samokha I do not agree to much with the map that you have showed, at least in Spain. In Spain the English level depends a lot in the age frame. Young people have a very good English level on the other hand the older are the people the lower is the level (I guess is the same in other countries).

[pavel.samokha]

Everyone here who has different views than mine are suffering from Survivorship Bias!

@cosmecosta https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2019/11/08/inenglish/1573204575_231066.html (I believe there are a lot of Suunto users in Spain in 25-64 age category, 45.8% of which are not speaking foreign languages according to the article)

I’m just looking to this from perspective of helping the largest number of possible customers to use Suunto devices.
I sometimes comment in various russian communities, I know also that there are similar communities on various platforms in other languages. And occasionally it’s hard to understand and help even in user’s native language, point them to English-speaking community forum? Nah, it won’t work, people are lazy.
Considering this and the fact that from time to time there are questions in other languages here, I believe there is a demand for language categories here. Am I right or wrong and what negative consequences of such categories can be? Only experiment will show.

[suzzlo]

@sartoric good point