How many people think it is important to have language skills when dealing with web hosting (especially when attracting customers from the international community)?

Options:
Yes, knowing more than one language is important
Who cares, everyone speaks English
Languages?!? what languages?

While it certainly helps, I don't think its pivotal.

Just knowing another language wont really help you if you don't have a mirror of the page in that language also.

"Email us if you speak portuguese!"

:eek:

If possible, I think more than 1 language is better.

I don't think English is paramount, but you need to know the primary language of the market you're trying to reach. Anything else is simply overkill in most cases. We do business with companies from all over the world (Algeria and otherwise) and never had a problem with languages.

Well, I was thinking about mirroring my pages in spanish.. Not all small business that want to be on the web have an english speaking employee. I think if you speak their language they probably are going to go with you before another host that is in a language they don't speak..

Another thing non-english people need to worry about is support.. How are they going to solve your problem if support doesn't understand you? :eek:

:homer:

Originally posted by HostMonkey
I was thinking about mirroring my pages in spanish.. Not all small business that want to be on the web have an english speaking employee. I think if you speak their language they probably are going to go with you before another host that is in a language they don't speak..

To mirror your site in Spanish is a good idea, there are many people out there speaking Spanish. But it only makes sense if you are also able to provide sales and support in Spanish. That's the main problem.

It gets you a better relatoins with the customer, I know several languages and it have been a major advantage with our clietns (advertisers).

we use freetranslation.com :) as a matter of fact, i just emailed a client in spanish today with complete instructions on uploading using LeapFTP...all in spanish

Theres others, like Altavistas translator service...all free..they all might not be "exact to the word..word for word" but it gets the job done to say the least


utilizamos freetranslation.com:) de hecho, acabo de emailed a un cliente en español hoy con las instrucciones completas en LeapFTP que usaba uploading... todas en español Theres otros, como el servicio del traductor de Altavistas... todo libre

Alaskan

It’s great to try to answer to your customer in their language, but I hope that your customer understand Chinese (or Greek as you say in English…)

utilizamos freetranslation.com de hecho, acabo de emailed a un cliente en español hoy con las instrucciones completas en LeapFTP que usaba uploading...

The translation for a Spanish speaking person would be something like:

We use freetranslation.com in fact; I just emailed to a customer in Spanish today the full instruction in LeapFTP who used uploading.

I thing that you can only use those kind of software to tell to somebody "I love you" :love: or “ I see you Saturday on the beach…”

A good example, is when you try to translate from French to English the headword of a letter:
Cher Monsieur (Dear Sir)

In 95% of the case the translation from a software or free stuff will be
"Expensive Sir". It is not the better headword to write to a customer.

If you want to do business with peoples speaking other language, you need to have good knowledge of the other language or have somebody in your staff that has the knowledge.

We are working on a FAQ, knowledge database and manual in Spanish and French for our customer and it’s not very easy. Also we are thingking to offer support in Spanish and French to other company thru 800-numbers.

It’s great also to see that the members of the WHT are not thinging that English is the most important language and that we need to take care of the others, in 2007 the first language of Internet will be Chinese… We just have the time to start to learn… :D

My 2 cents

Originally posted by WebSun
A good example, is when you try to translate from French to English the headword of a letter:
Cher Monsieur (Dear Sir)

In 95% of the case the translation from a software or free stuff will be
"Expensive Sir". It is not the better headword to write to a customer.
The very reason I don't use automatic translators! Good point.

like i said, i know for a fact its not word for word, thats why i always include the english version as well in every email I send out

I also noticed freetranslation isn't that reliable, but it seems AltaVista's is pretty good, so far from what I have used of it.

My Spanish customers clearly understand what I am translating...either way, nothing is as good as knowing the language, but its certainly a step forward

Most automatical translations are absolutely horrible. I have thought of having my website translated into other languages, but then there is the support issue - you have to be able to talk with the customers. You need to have a representative in the target country that can be your middleman/support technician/translator.

John

I think if you don't have native language speakers on staff then the advantages are possibly lost. However, from a search engine perspective, having a .it or .es version of your site can only help . If you are really trying to become a worldwide web host, then find someone who can optimise your site for these languages, set up a relevant domain and reap the rewards.

Don't use BabelFish or any of that stuff unless you want to be laughed at and ignored. Do it right and your European clients will appreciate it. If you don't have any European (not UK) clients, then this is the way to get them. After all, most Germans - for instance - will be searching Google.de in German.