Category talk:User languages

Early discussion
Thanks for creating this CocoaZen. Do you think it would be useful to split these categories into three, so you can see what level someone's language is at? For example, Wikipedia has Template:User en-3 for people with "advanced English". Angela (talk) 18:46, 21 May 2005 (UTC)


 * Sorry. I see you've already done that with Category:User es-1. :) Angela (talk) 18:50, 21 May 2005 (UTC)


 * S'ok. I only copied over the templates that applied to me.  I got the idea from The Saitou, and I wasn't sure how far we would want to go with it.  I'll create instructions for adding and using the templates from Wikipedia's Babel section.  Then, people can add them as they find them useful, and I hope, we won't get too much stuff that we don't use.  I wanted a ".5" level which probably describes my level of Spanish ability better than 1.  ;-)  But, I thought I'd stick to what's there for now.  --CocoaZen 20:32, 21 May 2005 (UTC)


 * The new Add Babel templates page looks great. Thanks :) Angela (talk) 01:55, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

Listings
I really think we need a Babel page where all the templates are listed, like they are on many Wikimedia projects. It doesn't have to have all the languages, but it should have at least those for which we have one or more templates already. People can add to it as they need to. --Cromwellt|talk|contribs 23:09, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
 * The listing can be found at http://www.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special%3AAllpages&from=user+a&namespace=10 Robin Patterson 05:20, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Detail on category pages
We seem to have a variety of pages now. Some (or most?) of the categories don't explain what they are about. See, for example, category:User jaw (which does not seem to have a WP equivalent or even a mention in iso639-3).

I suggest we try to standardise the category pages following the Wikipedia or WikiMedia Commons model. Example (copied from Wikipedia) in place at cities:Category:User_ja. (I presume that it needs proper acknowledgment of the WP templates??!) Robin Patterson 05:20, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Number of categories
I would like to repeat here the plea I have made on more than one WikiMedia page: let's stop at level 3. Higher levels are of quite insignificant value in working out which language might be best to use when talking to someone.

Commons, where this idea originated, has gone to level 4 despite my protests:
 * 3 stands for advanced or fluent knowledge: the ability to correct spelling and grammar errors in the language.
 * 4 stands for near-native ability.
 * N stands for native language.

Wikipedia goes to level 5:
 * xx-3 for advanced level - though you can write in this language with no problem, some small errors might occur.
 * xx-4 for 'near-native' level - although it's not your first language from birth, your ability is something like that of a native speaker.
 * xx-5 for professional proficiency. Note that this template is currently only available for a few languages.
 * xx (no hyphen or number) for native speakers who use a language every day and have a thorough grasp of it, including colloquialisms and idioms.

The purpose of the whole system is merely (to quote Wikipedia) "aiding multilingual communication by making it easier to contact someone who speaks a certain language". Level 3 should be about as good as any higher level for doing that. Even a level-3 claimant might be a better writer than some native speakers. Writing is more important than speaking here.

So: if your knowledge is not native but is advanced, fluent, or above those, please just use "3".

Robin Patterson 02:02, 24 October 2008 (UTC)