1212452 - Languages shouldn't be translated in english strings

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(developer.mozilla.org Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[Clément Lefèvre]

What did you do?
================
1. Browse MDN in english
2. Go to a translation page with the english interface, let's say at random https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Marketplace/Marketplace_APIs$translate?tolocale=fr

What happened?
==============
You will notice several place with the localized language ('Français' instead of 'french') into english strings.

You can especially notice it at least under the main title, at the right part for slug and title, under the TOC choice, under the translation for tags.

What should have happened?
==========================
Those strings are english strings and so should use the english name of the langages (French, German, …) instead of the localized name (français, deutsch, …).

Is there anything else we should know?
======================================

Comment 1

[Eric Shepherd [:sheppy]]

Similarly, if you're reading in English, the list of languages should be in English (perhaps with the translations as well), so English readers can actually understand the list.

Comment 2

[Clément Lefèvre]

(In reply to Eric Shepherd [:sheppy] from comment #1)
> Similarly, if you're reading in English, the list of languages should be in
> English (perhaps with the translations as well), so English readers can
> actually understand the list.

Actually, I thought about this. But then I finally came to the point that if you want to change the language, that would probably be for a language you're able to read and understand, and so it's not a problem for it to be translated.
You can even land on the English webpage (from a search engine for example), and wish to access to the one in your native language, being unable to read 3nglish: in such situation, if English translation of the language is too far from the one in your language, it could raise some difficulties.

Comment 3

[Eric Shepherd [:sheppy]]

(In reply to Eric Shepherd [:sheppy] from comment #1)
> Similarly, if you're reading in English, the list of languages should be in
> English (perhaps with the translations as well), so English readers can
> actually understand the list.

Filed as bug 1213338.

Comment 4

[Eric Shepherd [:sheppy]]

(In reply to Clément Lefèvre from comment #2)
> (In reply to Eric Shepherd [:sheppy] from comment #1)
> > Similarly, if you're reading in English, the list of languages should be in
> > English (perhaps with the translations as well), so English readers can
> > actually understand the list.
> 
> Actually, I thought about this. But then I finally came to the point that if
> you want to change the language, that would probably be for a language
> you're able to read and understand, and so it's not a problem for it to be
> translated.
> You can even land on the English webpage (from a search engine for example),
> and wish to access to the one in your native language, being unable to read
> 3nglish: in such situation, if English translation of the language is too
> far from the one in your language, it could raise some difficulties.

The thing is, sometimes you need to be able to figure out what languages are available for a page, or you have been told there's a problem with the X localization of a page and need to go there, or you have other reasons you need to see the list. And I'm proposing showing both versions of the name (see bug 1213338), not only the localized version.

Comment 5

[BMO Automation]

MDN Web Docs' bug reporting has now moved to GitHub. From now on, please file content bugs at https://github.com/mdn/sprints/issues/ and platform bugs at https://github.com/mdn/kuma/issues/.