We have a new user who has recently both asked and answered questions in French.
I think we should discuss the appropriateness of this practice.
As of 2023, there is a new policy on this.
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asked Feb 8, 2011 at 12:06
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3$\begingroup$ A messy part of this issue is the question of what constitutes English. Besides the existence of various versions of English (American, British, Australian, etc), there is the fact that many words have been taken into English while retaining their foreign spelling and pronunciation. (If you were to say that the stack exchange websites are part of the Zeitgeist ushered in by the internet, I would say “Touché!”) So, in an “English-only” environment would you be (implicitly/unintentionally) forbidden to use those words? - and even if not, would some self-censorship be taking place anyway? $\endgroup$– Mike JonesCommented Aug 30, 2011 at 3:31
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$\begingroup$ I have asked something related here. $\endgroup$– JMCF125Commented Mar 22, 2014 at 15:46
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11 Answers
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I would significantly prefer
- A question by a fluent speaker of a language that I don't know, translated into perfect English by someone who knows both languages, so that I can understand the translation immediately
compared to
- A question in broken English, which I cannot understand, by someone who is only a fluent speaker of another language.
I agree with all other responses here that it's fine to add a translation of the question into English, even without asking the OP, and that the OP has to be willing to take answers back in English. Anyone who posts answers in other languages has to expect that most members here can't read the answer to vote it up.
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8$\begingroup$ I totally agree. Even if I do understand the question, I would prefer to translate it myself instead of having to read mangled English. In fact, questions posted in polished French, say, with an added error-free English translation would make the site look much prettier than grammatically incorrect English ("Does it true that their are people who do there own translation" anyone?). $\endgroup$– Alex B.Commented Aug 29, 2011 at 4:44
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Upon request, here is a summary of my opinions on the matter.
For questions: I say go ahead and ask a question in any language you want, and take what you get as a response. Also be prepared for someone to edit an English translation into the question. (I think this should be regarded as a public service, and that one need not solicit the OP's permission in order to do so.)
For answers: unless the question specifically invites a non English language, I think answering in another language should be avoided. In particular, I worry about the following possibility: someone posts an answer in a foreign language (like French) that a large percentage of professional mathematicians can read but for which a much smaller percentage of anglophone students can read. Posting such an answer could actually make it less likely that the OP will receive an answer s/he can read and understand.
answered Feb 8, 2011 at 17:44
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3$\begingroup$ this might be OK so long as the question is translated into English. I guess it also depends on the community's willingness to do this work on behalf of the askers, and how many there are. Opening the door to this is a bit dangerous in my opinion, as it could engender a "translate this and do my work for me" mentality on the part of question askers. $\endgroup$– Jeff Atwood ModCommented Feb 9, 2011 at 4:21
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8$\begingroup$ @Jeff: Dear Jeff, I wouldn't expect posters to use a foreign language unless they were much more comfortable with it, as it would be much less likely to be read and answered. So I think there is a built-in disincentive to doing so from this being a primarily English-speaking website. $\endgroup$– Akhil Mathew ModCommented Feb 9, 2011 at 6:14
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8$\begingroup$ Translating really well is hard; but translating well enough to be useful is not too much work for anyone who knows both languages. In particular, translating a question is (in my experience) much less work than even thinking seriously about how to answer it. Especially if “peer-reviewed edits” come to math.se, widening the pool of translators, I don’t think the danger of a good non-English answer blocking an English answer is very serious. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 18:45
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4$\begingroup$ It is also worth adding that for good translations, it is much more important to be very comfortable with the language one is translating into than the one one is translating from. So it would probably greatly improve the quality of English that we see on this site if posters who are not completely comfortable with English posted in their native language or some other widely known language that they speak. I bet that questions in German, Russian or French will almost never remain untranslated for longer than an hour or two. $\endgroup$– Alex B.Commented Aug 29, 2011 at 4:35
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1$\begingroup$ I would add for questions that it really helps to include a sentence in English (even halting ungrammatical English) where you say that you will be able to understand answers in English. Otherwise the whole thing can feel a bit pointless. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 16, 2016 at 18:57
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If I may make a small request: I would appreciate it if, when a question or answer is posted in a language other than English, someone with the requisite multilingual ability could add a translation in English to the content of the post, because:
There would probably be many people here who do not know the other language, but would be very interested in the content of the question or answer if only they could read it.
If a similar or related question gets posted in English, it would not help to direct the asker to a previous question that he or she cannot even read. In particular, closing as exact duplicate would be unfortunate.
Certainly one can always resort to Google Translate, but a translation by machine is not necessarily accurate, and is often taxing to read.
(Right now, someone has helpfully provided a translation of the question into English in the comments, but it would be nice if it were added to the question itself, as comments do not show up in search.)
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1$\begingroup$ @Rahul: done. I hope my translation is roughly correct. (I did it blind and compared to anon's afterwards to prevent silly mistakes. It looks like our translations agree.) $\endgroup$– Willie Wong ModCommented Feb 8, 2011 at 20:47
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8$\begingroup$ @Rahul: by the way, being a professional mathematician does not confer reading knowledge of French as a magical power. It is certainly not the case that all math PhDs can read math in French. It depends a lot on (i) their age, (ii) their subject area [e.g. algebraic geometry is highly correlated with reading French, graph theory not so much] and (iii) their enthusiasm about learning a foreign language (as well as (iv) the language requirements of their PhD program, but these are increasingly vestigial). $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 8, 2011 at 21:16
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$\begingroup$ @Pete: Oh, I certainly did not think so! But it seemed to me from reading the discussions here and elsewhere that some knowledge of languages like French, German and Russian is helpful when working in mathematics, at least much more so as compared to certain other fields like computer science. $\endgroup$– user856Commented Feb 8, 2011 at 21:53
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5$\begingroup$ @Rahul: to that I say: I would love to know German and/or Russian. It would be a lot of fun and useful for a lot of things, including reading certain math papers. But what am I supposed to do -- take a sequence of courses in more than one foreign language? That's un-American! :) $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 8, 2011 at 22:39
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11$\begingroup$ Here is one data point: I speak both Russian and German fluently and I think I took advantage of that ability twice or maybe thrice in my (admittedly short) mathematical career. In comparison to that, I have read hundreds of fictional works and watched dozens of films in each of the languages. In short, there are better reasons to learn these languages than mathematics, so in a rational world, there should be hardly any correlation between mathematical skills and German/Russian knowledge. $\endgroup$– Alex B.Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 1:53
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$\begingroup$ I guess I was under a false impression. I've edited. $\endgroup$– user856Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 2:40
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I, for one, would prefer if we did stick to English...
The recent appearance of French consisted in the best written French I've read online in quite a while. But I can but note that just as other users managed to get the point of what was being asked by using, say, google translation service, the OP could have proceeded similarly...
answered Feb 9, 2011 at 4:29
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4$\begingroup$ it is, in my opinion, a very bad sign when a new user sees "oh, this site is in English, but I shall proceed to ask my question in {other language} anyway." Perhaps the OP was somehow exceptional in this case, but in the typical case.. users should follow basic site norms. $\endgroup$– Jeff Atwood ModCommented Feb 9, 2011 at 4:49
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5$\begingroup$ @Jeff It might well be a bad sign. This other language being French, which is famous for rather militant proponents, doesn't help in this instance. But so far, we haven't had policies preventing "bad signs". If the poster had opposed the inclusion of an English translation into his question, I would have flagged the question as spam. But whatever this was a bad sign of doesn't seem to have gotten worse at the time of writing this comment. $\endgroup$– Alex B.Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 6:16
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3$\begingroup$ @Jeff: I would be grateful if you could expand what exactly, in your view, it is a very bad sign of, that an OP writes a question in another language (presumably, other than English). A remark about the formulation of your comment: to pretend, even rhetorically, that the OP thought that this site is in English is (1) contrary to something the OP explicitly stated, and (2) preempting this whole debate at its onset. $\endgroup$– DidCommented Feb 9, 2011 at 6:53
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9$\begingroup$ @Didiers, I have trouble understanding how one can can miss the fact that this is, in practice, an English site, assuming one has browsed around in it for at least thirty seconds. I have no problem with foreign languages---I have spent an important part of the last 30 years studying several of them, included English; at the same time, I believe that common courtesy requires some observation of local customs: be it so as not to phrase questions like orders, to take off your shoes when you go into someone's house, or to not write all in caps. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 16:06
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2$\begingroup$ @Mariano: Besides being unnecessarily condescending and not answering in the least the question I asked, your comment raises more questions than it provides answers. For instance, I wonder what the local customs you mention (orders, shoes, caps) have to do in this discussion. Likewise, to invoke an undefined notion of common courtesy in this context is odd since, once again, it seems to take for granted the matter of the debate. $\endgroup$– DidCommented Feb 9, 2011 at 17:04
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14$\begingroup$ @Didier: I honestly do not see what could possibly seen as condescending in what I wrote. I made two points: first, that browsing the site immediately shows that, in practice, this is an English site; second, that when entering any social situation, including entering a public online forum, it is up to the person entering to spent enough time trying to figure out, and then at least show willingness to implement, the standard practices local to that forum. You apparently did not understand my references: we systematically tell people not to write all in caps, and to not phrase questions $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 17:20
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1$\begingroup$ ...in the form of orders; we are thereby sustaining the local standard practices. When you visit someone's house where the local standard practice is to take your shoes off, it is basic courtesy to take yours off---I am sorry for having assumed that such a trivial reference to real life courtesy would be immediately understood and taken as a real life example. I do not preempt nor take for granted anything: I am explaining my thoughts on the matter. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 17:25
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$\begingroup$ @Mariano: Re your first point, the debate (as I understand it) is to decide whether this site should refuse on principle every contribution not written in English (or in broken English, for that matter). In this context your (repeated) mentions of the (trivially true) fact that up to now this site functioned in English may be seen as a tactic to evade the debate. Re your second point, you once again postulate the answer to the question. Your last sentence is off the mark (and, as it happens, false). $\endgroup$– DidCommented Feb 9, 2011 at 17:47
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$\begingroup$ @Mariano: last sentence of your penultimate comment, that is. $\endgroup$– DidCommented Feb 9, 2011 at 17:50
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5$\begingroup$ I am not postulating the answer to any question: as I said already, I am giving my view on the matter, and it would be useful if you took the difference between these two things into consideration. I am talking about what has happened up to now, as you very aptly italicize, because that comment was written, as you surely will have observed, about what happened already. Repeating that I evade some debate does not, I am afraid, make that true. In any case, I don't think anything useful is going to come out of this specific interchange... $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 18:30
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1$\begingroup$ @JeffAtwood In my opinion, it is far worse if someone thinks "oh this site is in English, so I would bother not to ask/answer here". Someone here may not be able to read French but future visitors might be, and the site definitely would not want to miss on interesting questions and answers just because they are not in the language of most prolific colonisers of the by gone era. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 20:36
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In the admittedly short time I've been here, I have got the impression that the purpose of Stack Exchange is not only answering people's questions, but also gradually building up a "knowledge base" in the process. In my opinion, permitting questions or answers in other languages runs counter to this idea. The value of such a "knowledge base" obviously decreases with the number of languages. Also, there is no real need to permit questions in other languages. The vocabulary needed for English mathematics is ridiculously small. People who find out about this site and can understand what it is about should be able to get their message through. In this particular case, it is clear that C.R. speaks English well enough, but chooses to write in French as a matter of principle.
A little practical problem about questions in other languages: What if somebody asks a question that has already been asked and answered in French? Will it be closed as a duplicate?
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15$\begingroup$ "The value of such a "knowledge base" obviously decreases with the number of languages" — this is not obvious to me. It seems it should be "obviously increases" (starts to have value for readers in other languages as well), but actually nothing is obvious without comprehensively considering the externalities. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 11, 2011 at 18:53
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2$\begingroup$ Well, any question in French is good for those who understand French and not English. But it's bad for the much larger group of people who understand English and not French. So any gain in value for readers in another language leads to a much greater loss of value for readers who dont understand that language. Of course, it would be different if we had the same question in different languages, but this would require systematic translating. $\endgroup$– StefanCommented Feb 11, 2011 at 19:41
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4$\begingroup$ @Stefan Walter: just to let you know where we are now: 100% of the questions which have been asked in a non-English language on this site have been translated by volunteers. If the volume does not increase by more than a couple of orders of magnitude, I think this is likely to continue. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 11, 2011 at 22:17
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4$\begingroup$ From a techincal viewpoint, I would say standardizing the language is a good thing. There are issues like full text search of mixed languages (a Swahili wordbreaker?), dealing with multilingual tagging etc. I really don't see the big deal with saying this an English only site. How many mathematicians are there who can understand enough to post to this site and not really know English? From a software developer (of the SE system) perspective, it is not really worth the effort, IMO. Trying to support multiple languages is just increasing the work for everyone for not much benefit. 2c. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 11, 2011 at 23:08
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3$\begingroup$ @Stefan: I still don't understand the "loss of value". We're comparing two cases, one where a question in French does not exist, and the other where it does. Now how does adding a question lead to loss of value? (I'm assuming, of course, that the third alternative of the same poster posting the question in English instead is unlikely — there is a strong built-in disincentive against asking questions in other languages (fewer views), so presumably no one would post in another language if they were sufficiently comfortable with English.) $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 12, 2011 at 15:44
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$\begingroup$ "I'm assuming, of course, that the third alternative of the same poster posting the question in English instead is unlikely" - My point is that people who are sufficiently comfortable in English to find this site and understand its workings should be sufficiently comfortable in English to ask their question in English. The one user we are talking about clearly is comfortable with English, as he answered an English question and even states in the question linked to above that he's reading an English textbook at the moment. $\endgroup$– StefanCommented Feb 12, 2011 at 17:18
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2$\begingroup$ "The vocabulary needed for English mathematics is ridiculously small." That's hardly the point. Yes, understanding mathematical English is easy (as is, for an anglophone, understanding mathematical [any modern Romance/Germanic language]). But asking a question in English, particularly on subtle matters or about stuff you don't fully master (and if you mastered it, you wouldn't ask, would you?) is really hard! I think anyone who has taken a foreign language course has experienced the frustration of being able to understand relatively elaborated texts but... $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 31, 2011 at 17:14
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$\begingroup$ ... unable to express any mildly complex ideas... In a case like that, I think that being forced to write in English would deter some people from asking interesting questions. Compared to the little effort asked to translate such questions given the current volume, I think it's not worth it. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 31, 2011 at 17:14
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The user C.R. posted a detailed commentary on the main site. Following a request, I've moved it here. The translation is due to Derek Jennings.
Ceci devrait être un commentaire à la dernière réponse, mais je ne peux plus l'ajouter en tant que commentaire. Je m'en excuse.
@Alex
J'ai précisé cela dans ma question car je ne voulais pas qu'il y ait de malentendu. Mais en réalité je trouve que cela allait de soi que les gens devaient pouvoir répondre dans une autre langue que la mienne. En effet, si j'avais posé la question sur un site où tout le monde ne devait écrire qu'en français, je n'aurais pas pu recevoir de réponse de ceux qui comprennent le français mais s'expriment normalement dans une autre langue, et qui sont très nombreux.
Ce que je trouve souhaitable, c'est que sur un site comme celui-ci, qui est unique sur internet à mon avis, les gens parlant différentes langues puissent interagir, plutôt que ce que chaque communauté reste cloisonnée sur des sites différents. Évidemment, j'ai conscience de faire quelque chose qui n'a pas été fait souvent - ou du tout - jusqu'ici.
Dans le cas présent, je n'avais aucun moyen de savoir à l'avance si celui qui a commencé le fil comprenait ou non le français, et je ne crois pas que cela aurait été commode, ni pour lui ni pour moi, de poser la question au préalable et d'écrire la solution seulement après avoir reçu sa réponse. Alors j'ai tenté ma chance: une réponse qui a 50% de chances d'être comprise vaut mieux qu'aucune réponse.
Ceci dit, et évidemment ce n'était pas le cas ici, le problème pourrait être résolu entièrement à l'avenir en incluant dans le profil une case pour que les gens indiquent en quelles langues ils souhaitent recevoir des réponses.
D'ailleurs, dans d'autres circonstances, il arrive fréquemment que les gens s'expriment dans leur langue - ou une langue seconde qu'ils maîtrisent - sans savoir s'ils seront compris, mais en même temps sans que cela soit une preuve d'arrogance. J'ai déjà rencontré des touristes qui se sont exprimés spontanément en anglais, en espagnol, en allemand, et en italien, sans savoir si je pouvais les comprendre, et sans que cela soit le moindrement arrogant.
Here's a translation of the above.
This should be a comment to the last answer, but I cannot add it as a comment. Please accept my apologies.
I made that clear in my question because I did not want there to be any misunderstanding. But in reality, I believe it's inevitable that people should be able to reply in a language other than mine. In effect, if I had posed the question on a site where everybody had to write in French I would not have been able to receive a reply from those who understand French but normally speak another language, and there are a lot of them.
What I would like, is that on a site like this one, which is unique on the internet in my opinion, is that people speaking different languages can interact, rather than each community remaining fenced-in on different sites. Obviously, I'm aware of doing something that has not been done often, if at all, until now.
In the present case, I have no way of knowing in advance if the person who began the thread understands French, and I don't think it would have been practical, neither for him nor for me, to pose that question beforehand and write a solution only after having received his reply. So I decided to risk it: a reply that has a 50% chance of being understood is better than no reply at all.
That said, and evidently it's not the case here, the problem could be resolved entirely in advance by allowing one to specify in their profile in which languages they wish to receive answers.
Besides, under other circumstances, it happens frequently that people express themselves in their language, or in another language they speak, without knowing if they will be understood but, at the same time, not wanting to be arrogant. I have met tourists who have spoken freely in English, Spanish, German and Italian without knowing if I was able to understand them and who did not appear in the least arrogant.
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As has been pointed out by Pete Clark, it may be useful to think of the analogy that somebody asks a high school question and you phrase your answer in terms of Galois cohomology. If you don't use the language that the OP speaks, it's just not very helpful. Most people speak less than 5 languages, and there are more than hundred out there. What use is an answer in a random language that the OP doesn't understand? – Alex Bartel 11 hours ago edit
Malheureusement, je ne peux répondre qu'ici, car je perds mes points à chaque fois que je me déconnecte. J'estimais raisonnables les chances que ma réponse soit comprise. – C. R. 11 hours ago
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You should register, then you will keep your reputation. – Alex Bartel 11 hours ago
answered Feb 9, 2011 at 0:40
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$\begingroup$ @Sean: Dear Sean, the translation is not mine (I should have probably mentioned this). $\endgroup$– Akhil Mathew ModCommented Feb 9, 2011 at 1:37
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3$\begingroup$ thank you for posting it then. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 5:27
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3$\begingroup$ "Most people speak less than 5 languages," fewer, I think, not less "and there are more than hundred out there." There are more than 800 languages in New Guinea alone. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 4, 2014 at 9:38
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I have no problem with reading a question in Spanish and answering in English, but answering in Spanish would be a considerable challenge for me, and I'd guess that someone posting in Spanish would have no problem reading the answer in English, but might not be able to post the question in English. (The guy who did this yesterday included in his posting an explicit request for translation.)
Facebook and Wikipedia have taken different approaches to this question. Wikipedia is segregated by language: there's English Wikipedia, French Wikipeda, Arabic Wikipedia, etc. etc. On Facebook, if I set my language preference to French instead of English, then I read "X a partagé une photo de Y" instead of "X shared Y's photo", and "J'aime" instead of "Like", and "Aficher les 13 commentaires" instead of "Show all 13 comments", and "Accueil" instead of "Home", etc. etc. You can choose any of quite a large number of languages. But reading and writing posts is done in whichever language it's done in, at the discretion of the user every time; there's no segregation of languages at all. Users in Brazil who post in Portuguese and read their friends' postings in Portuguese are on the same facebook as those in France who post in French and read their friends postings in French, etc.
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I think questions can be posed in another language, but they should be properly translated so that the community can understand them. I believe it is fair to allow people to do so, since this site is dedicated to mathematical questions, and if they need any question on mathematics to be answered, so be it.
I can translate any question asked in Spanish, for example, though it will have to wait for me to spot it or be referenced to it. Another option is to form a small team for the most common languages that is able to give a little extra voluntary work to translate such questions with a proper notification system (10k+ users can see the "translate please" flag, but other users won't. (Maybe French, Spanish, German, which I know there are many users which speak it)
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2$\begingroup$ Again a shameless promotion of my own proposal, but anyway: You wrote with a proper notification system. Perhaps a reasonable way to create such notification system would be my suggestion from here: Could chatrooms serve as noticeboards?. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 1, 2012 at 8:39
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Adding another data point: I am fluently bilingual in English and French, can read Spanish, and can pick my way through a certain amount of German. I did a couple of years of grad school math work at Universite de Sherbrooke and UQAM here in Quebec, where all lectures, assignments, presentations, and exams were in French. It adds a nice variety to life and the professors at those schools are excellent.
At the present time, English schools and books and research and websites far outweigh the number in any other language. Most people learn English as a second language, at least enough to get along in their field of study. However they may not express themselves as well in English, especially in writing.
One exception to my first paragraph comes to mind: a class at a French-language university. Two students from Colombia, Spanish as a first language, English as a second but not fluent, learning French for the first time while full time in grad school; two Bulgarian students, also better in English than French although able to cope in each, or Bulgarian; two or three English-speaking Canadians, able to cope in French but not fluent; one French-speaking Quebecois, quite fluent in English; myself also used to both; and a Chinese professor who would of course find it easiest to speak Chinese but can manage both English and French, a little easier in English. Technically we were supposed to be 100 percent French but, mostly as a kindness to the new arrivals as well as easier on himself, the professor taught that course in English. This is the modern world and hey, it's fun! Meet interesting people from all around the world and get to know them.
I would like to propose the following policy:
(1) People who really are not confident in writing English may post questions and comment in another language. There should be some way they can flag what language they are using, if not English. They have to agree to accept a translation of their question to English.
(2) Other people have mentioned being willing to translate. I am ready to volunteer as well. Somebody computer-savvy can figure a way to send requests to volunteers. Presumably common foreign languages such as French or Chinese will have lots of translators as well and rarer ones like Finnish will have fewer translators, so the workload should even out. (3) Considering the number of people using this site and the speed of replies, there would be no problem of questions or comments sitting around too long. There would also be little or no problem of people not understanding the questions or comments, if translator volunteers dropped off an English version a short time after posting.
Advantages: Just think of all the new mathematics we could discover and new people we could meet if we got input from all the people who use Chinese or Japanese or Russian or Arabic or Hindi or Urdu! Surely opening up to the other half of the world outweighs the minor annoyance of having to wait a short time for a translation.
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3$\begingroup$ In abstract, that's all nice. In practice, it won't work. There are a lot more trivial tasks than translating posts that do not get done consistently. There are activities to have SE sites in other languages and the Stack Overflow site by now exists in a couple of languages. In my opinion the policy is that the site is in English. If posts in other languages happen and things somehow work out, it's fine. But it's a bad idea to have an improvised multi-language site. Plus, how many people are there that know Hindi and a lot fo math yet not enough English to participate? Not all that many, IMO $\endgroup$– quidCommented Feb 25, 2017 at 3:00
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1$\begingroup$ To avoid a risk of being misunderstood, my point is that almost all Hindi speakers that know a lot of math will also know English (there are certainly many Hindi speakers that know a lot of math). $\endgroup$– quidCommented Feb 25, 2017 at 3:04
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$\begingroup$ As I mentioned, so much math is published in English that almost everyone in math has a fair reading knowledge . But that does not mean they express themselves well. In particular, we are deaf and blind to math being done in Chinese. And people in China don't get the chance to learn English well. (I know, I have tried to teach conversational English to Chinese immigrants to Canada. Horror stories.) Also Russian and Arabic. Not that there would be a lot of posts in languages other than English, but by offering some help perhaps we could get some people over that first hurdle. $\endgroup$– victoriaCommented Feb 25, 2017 at 4:11
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$\begingroup$ As said it's a nice idea. It's also true that what I said for Hindi should only be true to a lesser extent for some other languages. Still for various reasons I am pretty sure it will/would not work. But then maybe I am a pessimist. One can also look at it in a different way, in the long run it is arguably better to study some English for real, rather than to rely on ad hoc translations here. Thus, not providing them could be a motivation to learn English. $\endgroup$– quidCommented Feb 26, 2017 at 10:47
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The official policy is that sites are English only at the moment.
http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/07/non-english-question-policy/
answered Feb 8, 2011 at 15:58
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21$\begingroup$ I find the official policy very sad and even somewhat disturbing. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 8, 2011 at 16:31
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26$\begingroup$ In particular, the question in French we had yesterday had more work put into it that 30 average English ones! $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 8, 2011 at 17:36
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31$\begingroup$ For what it's worth, I have no interest in enforcing this policy. $\endgroup$– Qiaochu Yuan ModCommented Feb 9, 2011 at 1:03
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18$\begingroup$ I also don't see a reason for such a policy. The poster knows that in asking a question in another language than English, he may be limiting his audience. It is his decision. Nobody is forced to read a question he doesn't understand. In fact, as far as an average participant of this site is concerned, most questions and answers are in a foreign language to him. Many will find it easier to read an elementary question written in French than an English question about Shimura varieties. So I really don't understand the rationale behind this policy. $\endgroup$– Alex B.Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 4:06
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3$\begingroup$ Now, answering in a language different from the OP's, that's a totally different matter... $\endgroup$– Alex B.Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 4:09
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1$\begingroup$ @Alex, so if someone asks in French answers to that question should be in French. As it seems everyone would like translations into English to be added, that doubles the work. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 15:56
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4$\begingroup$ @Mariano I would say that contributions in English should always be the norm. I would also say that if a question was asked in another language, an answer in the same language should be fine. As for doubling the work: nobody is forced to provide translations. We all do this thing voluntarily and are putting in work already, because we want to help. I have spent lots of time on trivial questions on this site, e.g. due to the ineptitude of the OP to listen or read carefully. Translating a question is a minor effort compared to that. $\endgroup$– Alex B.Commented Feb 10, 2011 at 1:02
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2$\begingroup$ I'm sure that many people who are keen to contribute but find most questions too hard to answer will be happy to provide a translation instead. $\endgroup$– Alex B.Commented Feb 10, 2011 at 1:03
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3$\begingroup$ @alex you should know that I've personally been told by very high ranking Google engineers that auto-translated content is grounds for banning from Google's index, as it explicitly violates their quality guidelines. So, the translations technically have to be hand translated, otherwise we risk delisting from Google. ref: twitter.com/#!/mattcutts/status/12763191490650112 $\endgroup$– Jeff Atwood ModCommented Feb 10, 2011 at 1:43
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3$\begingroup$ @Jeff Certainly. I didn't suggest anything else and I don't think I even mentioned Google translate anywhere. $\endgroup$– Alex B.Commented Feb 10, 2011 at 2:55
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3$\begingroup$ I think a policy on this should be left for each site to decide on its own (and possibly evolve with time), and not decided across StackExchange from "above". (I'd agree that for most SE sites, prohibiting non-English questions is a very good idea, but this is something for the respective communities to decide.) $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 12, 2011 at 17:53
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$\begingroup$ @ShreevatsaR: the policy here is for us to decide, that's why we have this meta. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 29, 2011 at 1:52
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$\begingroup$ It seems to me that this policy has been set with other (bigger) communities in mind. While it may be feasible to find a relatively comprehensive forum in a few languages to, say, understand pointers in C, I'm positive that no public francophone forum exists where even a relatively simple question about homotopy groups or Sobolev spaces has a good chance to be answered. As the "Direct programmers to native language resources." policy cannot be applied in our case, I think regarding this whole official policy as moot is a good way to go. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 31, 2011 at 17:23
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1$\begingroup$ Nonzero third derivatives support this policy. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 3, 2011 at 20:01
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There are only three (3) viable options on the language issue:
continue to enforce the English-only policy, in which case you come off as insensitive
allow any language, in which case you look silly, like a polygot boarding house
make the site fully bilingual, Esperanto being the other language
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$\begingroup$ I too have suggested this, getting down-voted to oblivion. Though now I have a different point of view. $\endgroup$– JMCF125Commented Mar 22, 2014 at 15:44
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