From the \"Languages in PS\" thread in General Discussion:
Perhaps there should be a language forum Some people are having difficulty getting around. We could announce what languages we speak to help out the new people.
I think it\'s great that the shout channel is English only, but why the Help channel? Non-English speaking people will probably have a much greater need for help considering how they, other than the regular questions, might have questions regarding translations or things like that. Having a bilingual GM that can help with translations and give explanations to things, should allow non-English speaking players to integrate more quickly.
...but I thought this would be better posted here since it\'s a feature suggestion.
Maybe there could be an extra chat channel specifically for help with translations and understanding language? A person who couldn\'t understand something clearly in English, or was having difficulty expressing something that they can say in their own language, could ask on this channel. Anyone else on the channel would be able to answer - if they\'re able to do the requested translation and willing to give up their game-playing time for it. The channel could work like the help channel, or it could simply behave as a normal channel.
Having thought about it a bit, I believe this could work well. The channel might be flooded with requests for translations at first, but demand would be much greater than supply, so it would probably soon reach equilibrium with only people who really need help asking. The incentive to learn English would not be removed because the requirement would not be; the channel would not be a substitute because if a person were to ask for a translation of every line they say, or used for irrelevant chatting, they would be spamming the channel; other people on it would get very annoyed and ask them to stop (possibly moving on to harsher measures if necessary, e.g. telling GMs). Even if a player found someone willing to be their personal interpreter, communicating this way would be cumbersome.
So if all went well the channel would mainly be used by people trying to speak English but unable to manage more difficult words (e.g. technical terms, medieval-setting terms, or just less common words like \"cumbersome\" ) and advanced grammar. They could get the help they needed, without needing to leave the game to consult a dictionary. Others who speak the same language would be able to share their knowledge directly with those who need it, and hopefully get some satisfaction from helping others of their kind. Even monolingual native English speakers may be able to help by rephrasing English words in terms of other English words or giving examples.
As well as asking for a translation, players could also ask, for example, \"please pass this on to a GM\", which would go some way to solving the problem of GMs who only understand English - but actual multilingual GMs would still be useful.
Of course, participation should be optional, so there should be an option to hide the channel from the chat window, maybe presented the first time it\'s opened.
Players could also ask about other languages, and I see no reason not to allow that, but naturally 99% of questions would be about English. There would be no need for the computer to be aware of what languages were involved or for it to be indicated explicitly on the screen - anyone capable of translating something will already know what language it is. However, if the channel got very busy, maybe it could be split into several channels for the major languages and one for others.
This would make it easy for people who speak the same language(s) to find each other - which, as has been discussed elsewhere - might be either a good or bad thing. Personally I\'d prefer to see this as a normal channel where people\'s names are shown. However, if the devs are really concerned that this would split the community, it could be implemented like the help channel, with the answerer\'s identity anonymous - maybe the questioner\'s identity too, with each person or each question given a number or something... this would feel rather cold and impersonal, but still work.
