I've only been on SN since April this year but I believe that there's no other better V4V platform than SN. I like SN so much that I find myself often discussing with my friends and family about it. Recently I and Coinsreporter both had a long discussion about it. He said that we should just bring all the people in here. SN is for everyone, no matter which language or which region he. She belongs. I completely agree with him. However, I think it would be better to get the views of everyone on this matter. So, let me share it with you.
When I tell my friends and family about such a platform where quality content is rewarded with real money, not with fake likes.
Most of them jump and get interested to know more about it.
Then I also tell them that it's not an outright social media, it's value for value platform where people engage in quality discussions, not simple chit-chats. People talk about so many different things in English.
Listening to this, the reaction they initially gave turns into a big Indifference! Why! I'll tell you a little later.
In my short stay with SN I haven't seen any of content in any other language than English. I understand it, you understand it. But there are people who don't understand English.
Now, I tell you about, why? India now has the largest population in the world. More than 70% of this population speak Hindi and English. I'm from a small town and most of my friends are afraid of English. They can't and they don't wanna learn it.
But, I wanna go forward to seeing these folks who don't understand English to become stackers. IMHO, they can be very crucial to building and creating an Indian/South East Asian community for SN which I think is very limited till now. There are a few stackers I know are from this region like @IamSINGLE @Coinsreporter @Athena @suraz @Beast_Vstar. And these are all I can recall. May be there are others who i don't know. It's still a positive sign that we're already present with sime numbers.
So, here are a few thing I wanna share and ask with all of you on the matter of bringing non-English understanding people to SN:
- Do you think it's a good idea overall?
- Will SN accept Hindi writings in the same way as we value good content in English?
- What's the best way to non-english stackers to interact with English Speakers? (I'm asking this because SN doesn't translate other language content automatically)
- Any panning from SN to bring non-English folks to SN?
These are all the things that I can recall as of now. Let me guide how to go about it.
Thank for reading!!
EditEdit
Please read it.Please read it.
Now, I tell you about, why? India now boasts the largest population in world. More than 70% of this population speak Hindi. Only a few people can understand English, a fewer can read, and the fewest can speak it. I'm from a small town and most of my friends are afraid of English. They are kind of afraid of English that they don't wanna learn it..
I don't understand being afraid of a language. I do understand not wanting to learn a language. What do you mean they are afraid of it? Why? In what way?
They think English is a very difficult language. And they can't learn it.
Yeah, I get that. I barely understand it.
No issue
TBH! They are just sloth learners.
I mean, I see this same attitude in my circles around different things. Many people have a mental block holding them back. They don't believe they have to capability to do things I'm sure they could do. Not to say it is going to be easy, but people tend to either grossly over or underestimated their capabilities.
Anyone is welcome to SN as long as they positively contribute to the community, I am not a native English speaker and I feel more than comfortable and welcome here.
Here you can talk in English but I'm talking about onboarding those who can't understand English.
There are many online resources to convert your words to English without problems, at least in my language it is very possible, I don't know if it is more complicated from other languages, but I think the alternative would be to create territories in specific languages, I can't think of another idea.
I think you're talking about translators. I don't know about your language but in case of Hindi they don't work properly. They don't justify with the essence of a good article
Yes, in my language it works very well (Spanish) but I guess it doesn't happen with all languages, it's clear that many people from many parts of the world can take advantage of a platform as great as SN, but language is a barrier, just like I would have trouble absorbing knowledge in Hindi because of the language barrier...
Here weren't talking about those who can read or write or understand English pretty well. But about those who don't understand English, but they might be good value addition to SN. But they'll be writing Hindi.
If such a territory is created and the Hindi community begins to provide high-quality content, that territory will grow and with it that community and more users from that part of the planet would come to SN.
That's what I was thinking about but with only 5 or 6 people, and all of those can understand English, it wouldn't be a good idea. First there should be a good community, we can start a territory.
Time will do the work, SN will continue to grow and more people from India will arrive, everything comes in the right time.
We want that time to come very early. I've suggested @BitcoinAbhi to refer everyone without thinking too much about English as barrier. Those who are curious will definitely find a way and those who are just lazy, will add no value here. But he is just hesitated to bring everyone or anyone to SN!
That is, whoever is interested will look for a way to understand the information, if the step is not taken to bring them, it may take years for the Hindi community to come to SN.
The solution may be to create a specific territory in the Hindi language, I can't think of another viable idea.
I think it would be great to reach non-English speakers. Six current stackers who speak Hindi is probably enough to start experimenting with it. Most posts don't have that many commenters as it is.
For those who can read English, but are only comfortable writing in a different language, this could work really well. Those of us who speak English can use a translator to get a sense of what you're saying and we can still reply in English.
You can also leave comments in Hindi on English posts and start a non-English discussion of the topic.
Reddit seems English primary and seems to be doing fine.
Yupp! Most of social media is English primary. I agree. SN would also be same. The matter of acceptance for non-English folks is a little different here. Just suppose if you see a comment written in Hinglish like - or kya hal chal you would probably not find out the proper translation tool. Ultimately start ignoring such comments in Hinglish!
I'm sure SN will remain English primary.
If having a few Hindi (or other non-English) posts and comments brings people here, that's great.
I agree. If someone who can only understand but can't write in English should answer in his native language. This is the most profound solution that we can have. Thanks! What I personally think is that most of the educated people can understand English, it's just they don't wanna read it twice! @BitcoinAbhi is just stretching it and he should bring in people and tell them to write valuable content in whatever language they want.
Ye sahi rhega mere hisab se. (according to me, it will be fine.)
You could try an experiment. Although you may feel like there aren't enough of you, most of you are very successful stackers here. If the level of trust is there, why not rent a territory, split the cost among all of you, and give it a shot? If you feel it's not worth it after a few months, none of you have lost much.
Thanks! This sounds a good idea. I'll definitely discuss it with others.
I am ok with it. Great idea.
I speak fluently 4 languages.
But a Bitcoin language is English.
what makes it so, do you think?
math & code. Is all based on English.
There are terms that cannot be translated in other languages.
Who doesn't speak or at least understand basic English, will have difficulties in understanding bitcoin.
okay, I see. Coding languages have an interesting history, don't they
Not English but Sanskrit is the best language for programming!
https://medium.com/@tomgoldenberg/sanskrit-the-first-programming-language-d8647753217f
Yupp! It's correct. But do we tie down SN to English only? Or we are open to all languages?
buy a SN territory and do whatever you want there.
Nahi, main nahi manta ki SN par Hindi me likhne ke liye territory kharidne ki jarurat hai. Hum yahan bhi Hindi me likh sakte hain.
You could create a Hindi territory or a non English speakers territory where people can post in other languages.
Thanks! I'm gonna explore the possibility of it.
Good question! I'm also from India. I think Indian people who will like SN will be english speaking people
No, according to me, who want to learn will like SN.
Namaste 🙏 everyone! I'm also from india.
Namskar
A good question for all of us.
You tell us. What do you think? Should we reffer SN to everyone or only to English understanding people?
You could have language specific territories to start with. Then sub-territories.
Why cant you just have your own territory?
Whenever Indian community will build, I will definitely own a Indian territory
A territory will not be enough until there's enough people write contents in that specific language. Example ~ru(ssia) ~Brazil ~Espanol, ~Japan, now ~Mexico by @carloschida that, from my understanding, is aiming to gather contents from that specific geopolitical area, more than referring to the language used itself.
There are many people who would be interested.
They could make topics in that territory.
I think it would work out, you have to build from the foundation.
The simple fact you have to ask for permission makes me think this platform is not decentralised enough.
I hadn't thought of it all that much, but it may mean SN has no future in its current form.
First of all we aren't here for asking permission from anyone, not even from @k00b.
We're just having a healthy discussion on how can we engage non-English folks on SN.
SN is the best platform for V4V discussions and no other platform even come closer to it in terms of quality content. But you won't understand it. I doubt you even understand the meaning of decentralized. If you're a fuckin' visiting fly from reddit, just stay out of it, otherwise we may kick you out.
Feel free to ban or whatever. You sound insecure.
And yes I understand decentralisation. Old enough to have used peer to peer online forums from before http.
Also who tf is koob? Are they the head boss? Should anyone care if it's decentralised?
That's some reply!!
Yes, absolutely important.
Selfishly I list these primitive baby step examples I use.
https://globalmerchant.io/pages/thailand
https://globalmerchant.io/pages/agent-dealer-distributor-wholesaler-wanted
https://globalmerchant.io/pages/united-arab-emirates
and American English and sometimes my merchant slang (I'm 72 years old).
I communicate on Telegram, LINE, WhatsApp as mandatory. As my main customers and suppliers, agents (99% are in other Countries), Americans in the USA usually do not do cold calls with me. But people, companies in other Countries seven days a week.
I say yes more languages the better, yes we will pick up some spam along the way, comes with growth.
I think you picked a good question @BitcoinAbhi. But i don't think we gonna have more engagement in that way. Coz most of the SN users, as i know, are Native English speakers. It will take long time and of course, more people to do so.
I agree.
To me, the best way to do so could be to have a language-specific territory or something similar.
For example, you could have a Italy territory in which people create posts in Italian and share ineresting articles and material from the Italian-speaking world.
However, I think one of the main blocking point could be the one of the price needed to create such a territory..
Yes!
But I think first we should get enough number of people to get engagement. I think we should first aim to get at least 100 active stackers from Hindi speaking region.
Probably yes! But what I wonder is, would we achieve more engagement if we already had those language-specific territories?
It's a good question...
I'm a Spanish speaker and I really enjoy the platform.
I've seen some attempts to create a Spanish Territory but it didn't work.
Maybe posting in both language would be a solution.
I think most of the users are from the States..
It won't work until people who are bilingual starts it. Territory won't work. But what I view that most of people nowadays are good enough in understanding English if they just read. After understanding when they want to reply, they can't due to language barrier. An auto translator may work if there's one available.
Press 2 for English
To foster engagement, bilingual content would be a great start (Post in non-English languages and offer English translations if capable) I know that many would be able to do that. This would not be too difficult for SN to incorporate, I'm sure. But would only make sense if there's a growing use of other languages.
Each post has a checkbox [ provide alternative language [ ] ]
and... [ use as primary language [ ] ]
Not a totally easy thing to implement but it would definitely afford more space for SN to reach a wider readership. What's to lose?
can't be possible unless a specific kind of SN is created solely for people in a particular geographical area.
By far yes.
I remember there was a russian territory, but it fell down quickly due to inactivity.
Even then you're free to try, nobody stops your laser eyes even the language barrier.
Now, I tell you about, why? India now boasts the largest population in world. More than 70% of this population speak Hindi. Only a few people can understand English, a fewer can read, and the fewest can speak it. I'm from a small town and most of my friends are afraid of English. They are kind of afraid of English that they don't wanna learn it.