Comments on: Bilingual Social Networking: How to Interact in More than One Language

By: Dima

Dima — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:03:59 +0000

Google Wave has the answer with its Rosy bot

By: buddz

buddz — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:09:42 +0000

If you write something in Tagalog then you could just put a link to Google Translate at the bottom of that update. If an non-Tagalog person wants to desperately know what you said they can just copy and paste your text. Maybe not the most user friendly but considering your Tagalog comment was not intended for everyone in the first place I don't think its that bad of an idea.

By: ramon nuez

ramon nuez — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:17:17 +0000

I am Spanish speaking and would really like to address the Spanish speaking social media crowd. Unfortunate, because of the difficulties you mentioned above I tend to shy away and just converse with my English speaking followers.

Thanks for the information.

By: logtar

logtar — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:20:55 +0000

My twittering in Spanish is in the low, very low percentages. I think out of my hundreds of updates there are maybe a handful that have been purely Spanish and have been mostly replies to someone that either did not know English or where the message would have been lost in translation.

My blog Spanish posts are ALWAYS translated. I do not want to ever alienate my audience by posting only for Spanish speakers since the vast majority of my readers either can or only speak English.

I am not sure why, but my wife and her French speaking friends do enjoy leaving everyone behind and twitter in French sometimes, but that might be a completely Quebequoi thing.

Interesting topic.

By: Max

Max — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:51:11 +0000

Good point – I’m still not sure how to handle this myself.

Right now about 95% of my updates are in english even though I’m german. So far it works very well because most of my followers are web designers or international clients so it doesn’t seem to be a problem.

However, more and more local clients and friends start using Twitter too and for those it might be strange if I write or reply in a foreign language.

Various accounts are not really an option for me now because keeping up with all of those social media streams today already requires a lot of time and so I try to limit it to the most important services.

By: Trina Roach

Trina Roach — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:51:32 +0000

Thanks for this insightful article! Just today I was thinking about two things you mentioned: whether I should have separate personal and business accounts, and how to deal with my multilingual posts (mostly English, but also German and sometimes Dutch).

Of course, with English being my native language, it is more natural (and quicker) for me to write in English. On the other hand, I am located in Germany and have many contacts who – though they speak proficient to (very) good English – also appreciate the ease of reading updates in their native language.

At the moment, I haven’t come up with a solution that feels right for me and my circumstances just yet. Your tips, however, have given me some valuable food for thought.

Thanks again!