Not sure how to juggle languages while setting up my francophone community

[stephtara (Stephanie Booth)]

Not 100% sure I’m in the right category.

I’m setting up Discourse for a community of French-speakers. I’m bilingual, and my experience is that it’s often better to use a tool in the “original” language, so English here. I figured I could set things up on the admin side using English, and then switch to French when it gets ready to include other people.

But!

When I create categories, automatic topic titles for category description are in English, and they stay in English when I change languages. See below.

I created the category in English, and then switched to French.

So, now I’m thinking I should actually do all the setup stuff in French rather than English, because it’s going to generate content here and there that won’t be localised.

Am I right to approach things in this way? What are the experiences of those of you who have set up Discourse for non-English-speaking communities?

[Falco]

@stephtara

When I create categories, automatic topic titles for category description are in English

Yes, they will use the current language. You can always edit those, though.

@stephtara

and they stay in English when I change languages.

If you want automatic translations, you need to enable it via Content Localization - Manual and Automatic with Discourse AI.

[Moin]

I prefer searching for settings with “English” as my interface language because then I can search the names of the settings, which are always in English, and the descriptions at the same time. Sometimes the keyword I am looking for is only in one of them, and then a German description makes things more complicated.

@Moin

A simple example is searching for “whisper.” As long as my interface language is English, I can find two settings because “whisper” is part of the name in one and mentioned in the description in the other:

whispers allowed groups
Allow private communication within topics for members of specified groups.

create post for category and tag changes
Create a whisper post when a topic’s category or tags change, requires whisper posts to be enabled.

I cannot do the same while my interface is in German. I can use “whisper” to find the first one and “flüster” to find the second one. But there is no way to find both.

Apart from searching settings, I try to use the interface in German. That helps with improving the translations and noticing bugs that occur only when your interface language is not English.

It’s also helpful because some things, like the “about the category” topics or placeholders you use in messages sent by the automation plugin, usually use the interface language you used at that time. Also, site texts you customize default to your interface language.

So, in general, I use the default locale of my forum (German) also as my interface locale, but I change it to find settings. I have a theme component that adds a toggle button to my sidebar so I can change my interface language with one click.

[stephtara (Stephanie Booth)]

@Moin

I prefer searching for settings with “English” as my interface language because then I can search the names of the settings, which are always in English, and the descriptions at the same time. Sometimes the keyword I am looking for is only in one of them, and then a German description makes things more complicated.

yeah that’s exactly why I left everything in English to set things up… simpler! But if it creates extra work because afterwards I need to go and edit topic titles and I don’t know what else that I haven’t discovered yet, maybe it’s better to try and do it in French…

@Moin

Apart from searching settings, I try to use the interface in German. That helps with improving the translations and noticing bugs that occur only when your interface language is not English.

Is there an easy way to flag localization omissions or errors? how does that work? I’m more than happy to throw in a few words here and there as long as I can do it without disrupting the current flow of the task I’m trying to accomplish (otherwise, I know me: it becomes a rabbit-hole and I never actually finish what I started trying to do).

@Moin

So, in general, I use the default locale of my forum (German) also as my interface locale, but I change it to find settings. I have a theme component that adds a toggle button to my sidebar so I can change my interface language with one click.

Thanks, that’s super helpful.

[Moin]

@stephtara

Is there an easy way to flag localization omissions or errors?

You can comment on them in Dev > Translations. I think there is also a topic about French translations in general: Quality of French Translations

One step further is to add a comment on Crowdin, where the translation happens. Contributing translations to Discourse (But Crowdin can be a little overwhelming, so it’s fine to comment here)