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sudanglo (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 7 Gitugutu 2010 10:32:01

Only just discovered that you can see various interesting statistics on Lernu usage.

See here for interesting example.

No prizes for guessing the most popular language for viewing Lernu pages. But would you have guessed the 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the list.

ceigered (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 7 Gitugutu 2010 12:40:26

Mmmm, I might join those Icelandic speakers down the bottom, 2 is a small number ridulo.gif

erinja (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 7 Gitugutu 2010 17:16:44

I think it has to do with registered users who last used the site in a particular language.

The very small languages (like Thai, Breton, and Icelandic) would only be available to someone with translation rights in those languages. Those languages don't even have the website fully translated, and aren't available to anyone except those with translation rights.

Dominique (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 7 Gitugutu 2010 17:52:56

erinja:I think it has to do with registered users who last used the site in a particular language.

The very small languages (like Thai, Breton, and Icelandic) would only be available to someone with translation rights in those languages. Those languages don't even have the website fully translated, and aren't available to anyone except those with translation rights.
You can see Lernu in thoses languages by typing the URL with the language code. For example, I can access Lernu in Breton at:

http://br.lernu.net

But most users won't think about doing that of course. I wish the threshold for appearing in the language selection menu was not as high as it currently is. Users can't see that Lernu is partially translated in minority languages. If they did, then probably more of them would chose one of those languages and maybe more of them would offer to help translating further.

erinja (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 7 Gitugutu 2010 18:35:52

Languages are only allowed to appear in the main menu when a certain minimum has been translated. I think it would present a bad image of lernu if we had many translations available that were really mostly untranslated.

For instance, Breton is the most completely translated of the languages that don't appear on the site - and it is less than 30% translated. Next on the list is Indonesian at 27%, Serbian at 18%, etc.

Perhaps we could advertise better to get people translating. I have personally undergone quite a bit of effort to get translators together for a few languages - Vietnamese (prior to the IJK that took place there), Thai, and Arabic. Arabic was the most successful one, it usually hovers near 100% translation. Vietnamese was translated extensively enough (60%) to appear on the main site for use. Thai pretty much failed, it stands at less than 10%. I simply couldn't find enough people to work on it.

Generic ads don't seem to work very well. And I have only very rarely received a request for translation rights because someone wished to see their language translated in a greater percentage. I was able to get some results on the languages I mentioned above only by contacting many individuals (through contacting national associations and searching the lernu user database for languages spoken) and personally asking them for their help.

If you speak a minority language and would like to translate lernu into your language, please contact me privately [warning - it's a ton of work to do alone! But if you can find someone to work with you, divide and conquer is a good approach]

Evildela (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 8 Gitugutu 2010 00:44:16

Has anyone looked into how much it would cost a translator to professionally do it?

erinja (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 8 Gitugutu 2010 02:59:17

It's a moot point on the translator as well. Lernu doesn't have enough money to pay a professional translator, remember.

A very few translators received some money for their work, but they were non-professionals, and the money they received wasn't that much in comparison to the work. I believe the person who worked on the Japanese translation got some money for that. The bottom line is that we need not only a site translation, but also continuing support for that language. Having lernu beautifully translated into Ojibwe doesn't help much unless you have a tutor who is willing to provide help to Ojibwe-speaking users and regularly correct lessons that arrive in Ojibwe (and respond to user comments in Ojibwe, as well)

Evildela (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 8 Gitugutu 2010 05:21:28

Well its not really a moot point. Lernu may not have the necessary money, but perhaps we could start up some type of donation system for language translations. Now sure they wouldn't have ongoing support but at least they'll have access to the language. Just my 2 cents...

ceigered (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 8 Gitugutu 2010 08:34:19

Well, if in a year or two Lernu!'s progressed no where in its Indonesian translation I should be able to help with that, as much as a non-native speaker could.

Of course, the most important parts are the lessons and the dictionary - from those alone you can learn a lot. And that's a lot more work than just doing an interface translation lango.gif.

sudanglo (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 8 Gitugutu 2010 10:29:37

Nobody seems to have commented yet on what I found surprising in the order of popularity of the various languages used to view the pages at Lernu.

The order doesn't seem to be in direct correspondence to the number of native speakers for the various languages.

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