Re: bilingual websites

Thierry Sourbier wrote:
> 
> > If your primary language was Welsh and a browser was available in Welsh,
> > what would *you* pick?
> 
> Sorry Chris, you picked the wrong person, my primary language is French and
> I use an English browser :).

And you accept language is fr, en right?

> I would agree that most French people would
> pick a French browser because most softwares (including the OSs) are
> available in French.

Well, I live in France, use a US Operating system set to English but
with French currency and dates (and my accept language is en-gb, en,
fr).

> Now, correct me if I'm wrong but:
> * I do not believe there is either a Welsh version of Windows or Mac OS.

Why would there need to be? But yes, I just checked the regional
settings on Windows XP and, in the list of languages, no Welsh.

> * Most softwares are not available in Welsh.

Correct. Some Web content is, though.

> * The vast majority (>90%) of Welsh speaker are bilingual English + Welsh.

Yes, although it depends on their preferred language as wel as what they
speak. For example, I suspect you would trather read material in French
than in English assuming tghe exact same content with the same
last-modify date was available in both languages?

> Hence my assumption that, just as the rest of their softwares, most Welsh
> users are probably using an English browsers. That may be an assumption that
> Christopher Williams can verify just by checking is web log :).
> 
> The point is that the browser preference is not totally reliable if it
> indicates English but should be reliable if it says Welsh.

Yes, that is a good summary. In my case, i found that i got a lot of
french-targetted adverts on web pages when I just *added* French; I
needed to add English (en-gb) as well as en to get them to believe me
;-)

-- 
Chris

Received on Tuesday, 30 October 2001 11:01:29 UTC