I often reply under Japanese posts, and I always assume users will use a translator as I do, but maybe in the context of a Japanese instance or conversation this may look rude?

  • ritsku
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    1 month ago

    Generally Japanese posters enjoy knowing they have fans overseas! And it’s better to type what you intend than attempt to type in a language you cannot speak. It doesn’t look rude at all though~

    I would be a little careful of words with opposite meanings though or idioms. Like “that song is sick” or “that’s tight”. Be direct with your post so the auto translator can pick it up properly.

  • @Michal@programming.dev
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    11 month ago

    If you answer in the language you know best, it’ll be easier to others to understand or translate, especially if it’s English.

    You could translate your message to match the language of the comment, but if you don’t know the language, how can you know if it conveys your message correctly?

    Overall, I’d say it depends on the specific community. If you try to inject yourself into a conversation in a Japanese language community, it may indeed come off as rude or ignorant.

    The best solution may be to post in both languages?

  • Miles O'Brien
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    41 month ago

    I’ve had more conversations than I can count with people I would never be able to talk to in person, all using our own native languages.

    The original posts are in English, people comment in their native language, and I use a translator, then respond in my own language. Is the translator perfect? No! Neither is theirs.

    With the way most translators I’ve used work, it’s easier for the non-native speaker to try translating, since the translator might try and use different words that entirely change the meaning, but likely list possible alternatives. A native e speaker will understand the alternatives while a non-native speaker probably won’t.

    That’s my thought process anyway.

    Never had anyone who wasn’t pearl-clutching or virtue-signaling complain about it. And I’ve had tons of conversations with people I’d never have talked to otherwise.

  • @jonathan@lemmy.zip
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    681 month ago

    I don’t do it, but if I did, I would consider apologetically offering the machine translation inline with my post. Why put the burden on them to do it if you want it to be read?

    • nasi_goreng
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      271 month ago

      Depends on the context, commenting in your native language is often totally okay.

      Let’s say: a Japanese artist posting an art with Japanese caption, they would totally happy to receive comment from various language, displaying a cultural exchange.

      This behaviour of native language comment is actually common in Asia and Africa, but not in Western countries…

      Just be wary of joke or sarcasm that might interpreted as hate comment.

    • Fedo[T] ¶OP
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      111 month ago

      Actually I did it one time, but every response I got was in English even if the user was a Japanese speaker. So I started worrying that the translation was incorrect, even if it was specified that I wasn’t a Japanese speaker. I wonder if maybe, especially in the Fediverse context, Japanese users might be pretty used to English and Latin alphabet in general so that it may be easier to them if I just write using the language I actually know in order to avoid mistakes

      • tiredofsametab
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        11 month ago

        Everybody learns the Latin alphabet and English in school (used to be Jr high but pushed back to elementary recently). Proficiency levels are low, especially in speaking and listening, and shyness/fear of mistakes are factors. However, reading can be pretty decent. Of course, people very good at English also exist.

        Could also be that many use machine translation, at least for the output side.

      • nasi_goreng
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        151 month ago

        Using English is totally okay!

        I did it all the time and we interacted just fine.

        Using machine translation can lead to mistranslation, even your heartwarming comment can be interpreted as hostile.

  • tiredofsametab
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    31 month ago

    I don’t think most people would care unless the community rules forbid it. Some might be curious, some might skip it, and you might get a nettouyo being a racist twat every now and again.

  • atro_city
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    91 month ago

    Hmmm… I thought it would be rude, but considering the consensus here, people speaking other languages should just respond using their languages to English comments and posts. There are way more non-English speaking people on the planet than English speakers. It would make the fediverse truly international if people did what you did!

    Thanks for possibly starting a movement :)

    • Jerry on PieFed
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      31 month ago

      I tried translating something before posting it to the same language (Thai) and apparently nobody understood what I was talking about. But enough people understood English, so at least some people would have understood me if I just posted it in English. The others could try translating.

      Responding in English, if this is your language, is not Anglo domination. A lot of people learn English as a second language, so many know it. If you translate to Japanese and post it, then when people translate it to English, or Spanish, whatever, it will make no sense whatsoever.

      When I traveled to France, a Middle Eastern family came into the restaurant and asked for the English menu. They couldn’t read the French menu. But they knew enough English. That’s when I realized that restaurants in France offered English menus, not for Westerners, but because more people in the world were likely to understand it rather than French.

      I post in English. Translating from English to Spanish is better than English to Japanese to Spanish.

    • Pamasich
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      51 month ago

      Mer chönd das scho probiere, aber denn müsst mer ja di ganz Ziit en Übersetzer zur Hand ha, wär denn doch nöd die best UX würdi säge. Das würd d’Neuakömmlige nur no meh verschüüche.

      • atro_city
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        21 month ago

        That’s not a language, it’s a dialect and nowhere near standard. I think there’s quite a difference between responding in a language that can be translated by existing translation tools vs whatever offshoot of a dialect you wrote that in. After all, people from the UK will respond in English, not Cockney, Geordi, Brummie or whatever else. And they don’t write words how they sound when spoken, which is what you’re doing.

        Surprisingly your text was translatable by DeeplL

        As to the UX, I don’t see the problem. Lemmy allows you to select which languages you want to see and if people consistently respond in a language you don’t wan to see, you can always block them. It’s a pity Lemmy doesn’t allow deselecting “Undetermined” because it would turn this into a non-issue.

        • @5714@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          21 month ago

          The point is that languages without large speakerbases might consider barging in with the most recognized languages rude, while languages with similar status might find it normal.

        • @Agrivar@lemmy.world
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          21 month ago

          I just used the TWP plugin to translate that comment inline and got, “We could try it, but then we’d have to have a translator on hand the whole time, which wouldn’t be the best UX, I think. That would only alienate newcomers even more.”

          Is that not correct?

            • @Agrivar@lemmy.world
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              11 month ago

              Neat!

              My only complaint with the TWP translator - it doesn’t tell me the language/dialect that it translated from. Mind telling me what dialect (of what language) you wrote in?

  • @atrielienz@lemmy.world
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    11 month ago

    If that’s the only language you have to communicate, I’d say more power to you. If you can translate what you’re saying using online tools, that might better facilitate communication and conversation.

  • @FrostyTrichs@crazypeople.online
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    81 month ago

    I don’t think it’s a major offense to reply in your own language but since most of Lemmy is English speaking I try to respect the spaces that are clearly meant for something else.

    I like to translate what I’m posting to whatever language the community is using. If I mention I’m using a translator the OP or another commenter will reply in English if they feel comfortable. !bubatzgartenclub@lemmy.world is one that comes to mind where this has happened in the past.

  • @splendoruranium@infosec.pub
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    441 month ago

    I often reply under Japanese posts, and I always assume users will use a translator as I do, but maybe in the context of a Japanese this may look rude?

    Can’t speak for others (obviously, as this is about individual etiquette perceptions) but I would consider it to be polite to only enter conversations with unknown parties in languages that the parties have shown to be capable of speaking and understanding.
    Using a new language entering a conversation would therefore signal either familiarity (“I know they understand me”) or rudeness (“I don’t care if they understand me”) to me, I suppose.

    • @Jumuta@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      nah, it’s better for information integrity to reply in the language you understand imo, comments translated using translator services are very obvious anyway and some people are multilingual

      • Coco
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        121 month ago

        I wonder, then, if the move is to type your comment, run it through a translator yourself, then post both? I saw that move a lot on Rednote before it added its own translator.

      • @splendoruranium@infosec.pub
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        1 month ago

        nah, it’s better for information integrity to reply in the language you understand imo, comments translated using translator services are very obvious anyway and some people are multilingual

        Sure, I agree? Maybe there’s a misunderstanding here and I should add that it simply would never even occur to me to enter a conversation if I didn’t natively understand the language that’s being used.

  • Yerbouti
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    41 month ago

    Just use a translator and state it in your post. You can literally do this with a simple right-click in firefox. Enough with the anglo domination.

  • @swampwitch@lemmy.world
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    51 month ago

    I’m not sure about other places, but in mod comments on Nexus it’s fairly standard to just reply in your native language and have the other person translate.

    You’ll often see discussions with one half in English and the other in Chinese, for example.

    • @Infynis@midwest.social
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      21 month ago

      Yeah, this is the way. It’s better to let the other person do the translating, rather than presenting maybe your ideas by using a translator. It would be like running everything you post through an AI first. Best to give as much intent as possible