Forum users, languages, locations

overscan (PaulMM)

overscan (PaulMM)

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
27 December 2005
Messages
16,906
Reaction score
21,705
Someone wondered in a topic whether languages other than English represented the majority of forum visitors.

Forum Language Demographics.png

The answer is no, English speakers make up more than half of the users, but the user base is certainly pretty diverse in languages. This is probably due to automatic translation technologies in browsers.

There are 145 distinct entries, though there are a lot of double ups, so the number of languages is less than this.
 
Last edited:
Hobbes said:
What's this based on? Browser language, preferred language setting in browser? IP address geolookup?
Click to expand...
Good point.
Probably "native language" is a poor wording for this situation.

My real native language on the farm was Auvergnat (a variant of Occitan), then the Republic forced French unto me at school, then I emigrated, then assignments jobs and life happened.
My OS and my browsers are in US-English, primarily because I don't need translation bugs in all this flawed-enough software. Geo-location would probably list me as German-language.
 
Please do not begin to politicize what is nothing more than a very interesting statistic that reflects the reality of the medium we are using. English is the "lingua franca" of our time, universally accepted as of general utility and, for the first time in history, not forcibly imposed on any defeated people.
 
Justo Miranda said:
Please do not begin to politicize what is nothing more than a very interesting statistic that reflects the reality of the medium we are using. English is the "lingua franca" of our time, universally accepted as of general utility and, for the first time in history, not forcibly imposed on any defeated people.
Click to expand...
I did not see Dan's input as "politicizing," rather an explanation that sometimes things can be a lot more complex than they initially appear.

A forum reader in the US, after all, need not be a native English speaker... or *any* kind of English speaker. Forget about immigrants who haven't learned the language; there are sizable pockets of many-generational Americans who do not speak English as their first language. Amish people speaking German, Navaho, Lakota, French-speaking Cajuns, Inuit, Yiddish. And *lots* and LOTS of people who speak Spanish.
 
It is always possible to present things as more complex than they seem. I was born in Morocco (in a taxi) between the villages of Nador and Senganga, my parents were Spanish officials living in Melilla (Spanish Morocco), during the dictatorship in primary school I was forced to study French and Latin, when I worked in Catalonia I was forced to learn Catalan in a very politicized environment in which children are not allowed to speak Spanish (their own "native" language) at school, I have family in Vitoria and also there the children who speak Spanish are called "Tchakurras" (dogs) without the Basque government acting to prevent it.

I learned a bit of German, quite a bit of Italian and some Polish while writing my books but I have failed with Japanese and Russian. It has been fortunate that there is English to be able to communicate with everyone. Thanks to the creators of this fantastic research tool that is "Secret Projects".
 
Good point, this is browser language. However for the purposes of the forum, I thought anyone selecting English is presumably able to read and post in English even if not a native speaker.


Geolocation stats:

By Country:
Countries.png
By City:
Cities.png

London is the best city to try to arrange a Secret Projects pub visit, it seems.
 
what is the difference between DE-DE and DE?
 
There are 2 systems for providing language codes:
1. language only, code for German is 'de'
2. language and country, so you can differentiate between German - Germany and German-Switzerland. Optionally, also specify the script/alphabet (Serbian has Latin and Cyrillic variants, for instance).
 
Very interesting stats. Thanks for posting. This is useful information or moderators to have a better understanding of this community.
 
Being aware that some posters are not native speakers of English can help with understanding what is posted. Also, machine translation has improved over the years but can still produce "interesting" results.

Translating between two non-English languages, I believe Google Translate translates everything first to English, and then from English to another language. That doubles the chance of funny results.
 
perttime said:
Being aware that some posters are not native speakers of English can help with understanding what is posted. Also, machine translation has improved over the years but can still produce "interesting" results.

Translating between two non-English languages, I believe Google Translate translates everything first to English, and then from English to another language. That doubles the chance of funny results.
Click to expand...

"Are you a fan of Michael Jackson ?" imagine translating that "Are you a "wind rotating machine" of M.J ? " hell yes, fanatic&fan in english, but fan & ventilateur in French...

Also George Walker Bush become "George's walking bush" I kid you not.
 
It surprises me that we have so many Chinese users given likely access issues (Great Firewall etc.).
 
Hood said:
It surprises me that we have so many Chinese users given likely access issues (Great Firewall etc.).
Click to expand...

It's open to the aviation industry, it's where they get all their inspiration from.

<just kidding>

Archibald said:
550 French members ? unbelievable. I can ensure we are less than 10 very active in posting (I'm of the hyperactive kind LMAO).
Click to expand...

Certainly, 550 French people visiting the forum in a month does not equal 550 active French members. However people often spend months or years visiting regularly before signing up.
 
overscan (PaulMM) said:
Someone wondered in a topic whether languages other than English represented the majority of forum visitors.

View attachment 669049

The answer is no, English speakers make up more than half of the users, but the user base is certainly pretty diverse in languages. This is probably due to automatic translation technologies in browsers.

There are 145 distinct entries, though there are a lot of double ups, so the number of languages is less than this.
Click to expand...
despite of different languages, we are all here to find more about projects
 
Last edited:

Similar threads

Please donate to support the forum.

Back
Top Bottom