Help:Add Babel templates

A Babel template is a specialized form of the userbox, which allows users to provide some information about the languages they use and their level of proficiency. The use of these templates also puts the user in appropriate language categories, so other users can find them.

This makes it much easier to find users with whom you can communicate, which is important on global projects like Wikia which caters to many different languages. The templates were first created and used on the multilingual wikis Meta-Wikipedia and Commons, and were named after the Tower of Babel.

For example, a user who is fluent in English and can use it as a native speaker would use the template  on his or her Help:Central Wikia user page, or   when using it as a shared template on other Wikia. The template would look like this:

What language levels are used?
The templates are in the format  where "language" is the two/three letter code for the language. (See ISO 639 if you don't already know it.) When no level (or the letter N) is specified, it indicates someone is fluent at the level of a native speaker. The levels of ability are:
 * xx-0 the user does not understand this language
 * xx-1 for basic command (the ability to understand and answer simple questions in the language)
 * xx-2 for an intermediate level of knowledge
 * xx-3 for advanced or fluent understanding (the ability to correct spelling and grammar errors in the language)
 * xx or xx-N for native or equivalent

How do I add Babel templates to my user page?

 * 1) Pick the templates (language and level) that describe your ability best
 * 2) Go to your user page and edit it
 * 3) Add the appropriate code to your user page

You may want to put the template labels together in a box. See right for an example.

Adding the templates will also add your user page to the appropriate language categories.

My language doesn't have a template!
If the template for the language and level you want has not been created on the Help:Central Wikia yet, copy it over from another Wikimedia site. (There are links to some under "more information" below.) Create the equivalent template here. For example, copy the contents from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:User_de-1 to  http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Template:User de-1  to create the template for basic German speakers.