As FBLA grows larger and larger, our association has reached out to many individuals in this country and others. Developing a Spanish version of the website may help others that are not as familiar with English. Creating a tab at the top to set the website to different languages would broaden participation.
-Si Cave
Comments (7)
Put a link on the site to Google Translate, or some similar service. This essentially makes the website available in a wide range of languages, not just one extra.
If you start translating materials into one language, where do you draw the line. In CA, we have strong Asian-ethnic participation, so are you going to provide materials in Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Hmong, Tagalog, etc.
Looks like a slippery slope to me.
I agree with Glenn on this one. Great intention Si but there are some unintended consequences that could come about.
I think that a major problem with a google translate option is correct grammar. I use google translate regularly, and I have a lot of trouble with word order, slang, etc. If we were to write the site with correct translation it would benefit FBLA-PBL in the long run.
I believe that translating the national website would bring up issues of race and ethnicity and cause ethnic barriers to form rather than breaking them. In my opinion, these issues are too sensitive for us to even touch. Doing this would be too risky.
Out of all the response, this comment does sum up all the results of what may happen. However, I disagree that this is too sensitive. The Jim Crow Law and Civil Rights movement were sensitive subjects at one point. I believe Si Cava was wanting a way to reach out and get more people involved; but yes, this action however would seem to only divide rather unify participation. Agree?
b_maschhoff, America is considered the melting pot of nationalities. I see where glenn is coming from concerning the languages; however, we must also consider that the vast majority of the Puerto Rico state chapter is Hispanic, and that Spanish is their native tongue.
I'd suggest English, Spanish, and French. These are the most common languages spoken in North America, and would give our international visitors more opportunity for understanding. We could use Google Translate for other languages. (It isn't perfect, but it's probably useful enough for site navigation for most languages.) Having a web site available in Spanish or French wouldn't take away the English version, and would make our organization more inviting.