Crossing through many profiles I now realized that from time to time German Postcrossing accounts are completely written in german.
As most of you guys may not understand german, they should be written in english.
I just discovered another pc profile and well it’s only written in German.
For me as a german native speaker, I would like help these people out and will translate their profiles (if it’s all written in german) into English.
Would you be thankful for that or just find it rude?
You can offer. I do whenever I encounter someone (but in a “hey, I noticed …, feel free to contact me if you need help translating, glad to help” kind of way).
Problem is the automatic, browser embedded translation - most people don’t realize their text isn’t displayed in English.
It’s not exclusively a German habit, I have seen Russian and Chinese profiles as well.
why would they write in german language ? i think that is the question. i have once or twice received cards sent to me written in german sent officially which i do not understand much.
I think people from an older generation often have trouble speaking english because they never realy learned it.
Other might just feel uncomfortable using the language.
I can also imagine people not reading the rules of as others here pointed out think it will be automatically translated.
It is not a pure German problem. I had that with other nations as well. I do however notice, that it happens with German profiles more often these days.
If they believe the site/the browser will automatically translate their profile text for them, I don’t think you can say they chose to write in German (or whatever their native language is). They just wanted a machine to do the translation instead of their own head. Whether they really don’t know enough English or are simply lazy or ignorant is impossible to tell. Older people have often not learned much English at school, younger people might be a bit spoilt by devices doing their thinking for them.
In Germany you can easily live your life without much exposure to English - all TV shows and movies are dubbed into German, for example. I have the impression that many Germans are more comfortable having everything online translated into German for them instead of adapting themselves to a foreign language, which is fine, of course, but can cause problems if you aren’t aware that your own content won’t be translated as well.
I also think there’s a general tendency for perfectionism so that many Germans don’t even try to use English, even if they are perfectly able to make themselves understood, because they don’t want to “embarrass” themselves by making mistakes.
Just to be clear, though - I don’t want to bash my fellow Germans, I’m just trying to find an explanation. Of course many Germans speak English just fine and are not afraid to use it, and of course people from other countries also sometimes have their profiles in their own languages.
It makes more sense if the profile owner does this once.
If my profile were in not English, over 2000 people had to translate it, when I can do it just once.
So, more environmental friendly too when the profile is in English already
And then of course the problem, not all languages are in Google translate, nor does all the languages there are, translate well at all.
So, I think they really should read carefully what they join, because if they don’t read this basic information, they probably don’t understand everything else too. (Like sending to every address they draw etc.)
I think most people are able to learn some basic English
I think it never stops learning (improving) a language.
One Thing came just in my mind.
If I stumble across a profile which has at least one sentence in Russian or Chinese, my Chrome Browser translates the whole page into German
I’m wondering if this happens also to others (of course then in your language)
I remember when this happens first I wanted to ask this person to use English on the profile text. Fortunately I realized it was Chrome before I sent a message
I removed all automatic browser translations because the sites I browse are mostly in English anyway. If I stumble upon a sentence written in a language I don’t speak, I open a new tab and translate it.
That’s just my personal preference though, I don’t expect other to do it, especially if they’re not comfortable reading in another language. And, as others have said, people who are using an automatic translator may not even realize they’re browsing a website where the common language is different from theirs.
That’s that thing.
I don’t have activated any automatic translation. It happens only on the Postcrossing main site and only on profiles like mentioned before. I don’t know how many times I checked my browser settings if by chance I or an update activated the automatic browser translation, but no 🤷
@S_Tuulia
honestly there are times it is a bit difficult for me to understand your english, sorry. like there is some sort of twist or something, you know ?
what i meant about google translate is it is better to choose english as either language. like,
japanese - english
indonesian - english
german - english
etc.
i have read some of indonesian language translated in english on google translate. it was so well translated and i was impressed. that is what i was trying to say.
i hope i am answering you correctly.
i personally understand better when things were said straightforward.
I suppose reading the rules of postcrossing is the actual issue - I can imagine that many people (not just germans) have their difficulties with understanding the rules which are in English only, if they only speak very little English.