Over the last couple of weeks, those of you following this blog might have been surprised by the multiplication of blog posts…in different languages.
So, here is why.
Making the blog accessible to all
From the start, Frank and I decided that we would write the blog in English as the main language. But we also wanted to make the blog accessible to those in our respective families that could not read in English.
So we decided that Frank would write his weekly reports in Dutch and I would write some blogs in Spanish. And that we would both include at least a link to an automatic translation into English of the post.
Brilliant! we thought! Everyone happy!
How the readers see it
Oh! My! we were so WRONG!
What happens is that when someone sees the title of the post in another language that they cannot understand, they just simply do not click on the post at all. No click = no link to the English translation.
Our new solution
So, in order to make it clearer and easier for everyone, here is our new Beta-test solution:
For every post that we write in either Dutch or Spanish we have started to make at least an additional post, with at least:
- A title in English and
- Either the complete blog in English or a link to the google translation into English/Dutch/Spanish.
We would be happy to hear if you find this solution:
A) Easier
B) Confusing
C) Useless, because you will not read the blog in english anyway 😉
THE FLIP FLOP LIFE 
In my case I sometimes struggled with the Spanish and Dutch versions but only managed to read a few sentences and never made it to the end. Is there where the ENGLISH translation was?
I find the new strategy a bit overwhelming. I woke up with 10 blog posts and could not figure out which ones were old and new. But maybe that was just this one time to catch up?
I think I would prefer the blogs in their original language. And then easy to find translation buttons.
Thanks for sharing so much of your life and thoughts with us!
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Thank you for the feedback. The overwhealming amount of posts was just this one time, since I posted all my former posts in Spanish also in english.
From now onwards, there will be at most one post per day in english or two if we go ahead with the strategy to have one per week in our native language and english.
But we will also see if there is a clearer and easy way to include translation buttons on those blogs that are not written in english, as you suggest.
Again, stort tack!!
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