Did you know there were over 6,000 languages spoken in the world today? The top five spoken languages being English, Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, and French*. According to unbabel.com, 55.5% of all the web’s content is in English, but only 20% of the world’s population speak English.
There’s something missing here. How can over half the content on the internet be in English when only a 5th of the world speak English? I didn’t know this was an issue being from the United States, I assumed each country had a proportionate amount of content on the web that was proportionate to their language. That’s not the case. And just think of all those resources online that can help the poor, the underserved, the uneducated, and the needy. They don’t even know it exists because those resources are not available in their native language.
I recently took on a project that was solving this problem for a very specific industry. The Construction Industry. Suicide in the Construction Industry. According to constructionworkingminds.org*, “out of the almost 50,000 people who die by suicide every year, about 75% are working-aged men.” This website is a source for them, but the Construction industry just isn’t here in the United States, it’s across the world: Singapore, India, France, Ireland, Chile, Denmark, Finland, and so on. The list is endless. Fifty thousand people need or needed this resource, so why are we just adding these languages now?
Money and resources. I would say it took a good year or more from applying for funds, starting the planning stages, hiring contractors, translating the content, and everything else needed to get this website offered in multiple languages. It was an inspiring experience to be working with teams in different countries, learning from people fluent in multiple languages, and knowing I was helping in bringing resources to those who did not have any.
I would say it’s not just that good feeling you get when you’re doing something to help, think of the reach you could have if you had content that could be read by those who don’t speak English. There are over 6,000 languages in the world and you’re probably only offering one option on your website right now.
It’s definitely opened my eyes as I work on website after website. Why wouldn’t you want to view a website in your native language? I think it’s something we take for granted, so on my next project, I’ll probably be asking ‘Are we offering this in different languages?’ and if not, then ‘Why not?’
Sources:
*https://blog.busuu.com/most-spoken-languages-in-the-world/
*https://unbabel.com/blog/top-languages-of-the-internet/
*https://www.constructionworkingminds.org/about
Photo by Arthur Edelmans on Unsplash
