I grew up in Asia and here's my take on outreaching simplified vs. traditional
Chinese.
On the surface, it would appear that translating the survey into simplified has the
greatest return on investment/effort because it would reach thousands of universities in
mainland Chinese (plus general outreach that can benefit Singapore and some Malaysia). It
would also help spark interest and slowly catch up to the dominant position of local Baidu
Baike (Baidu Encyclopedia). However, a huge drawback is the overall censorship of
Wikipedia by Chinese government. Many sensitive topics around politics, post-1949 history
and environment are frequently blocked en masse on the internet by the Great Firewall of
China. The list constantly updates and access to Wikipedia can be intermittent. Sometimes
a page is blocked on Chinese Wikipedia but the English entry remains accessible. Other
times entries on both languages are completely blocked. This enormous uncertainty makes me
hesitant to see resources dedicated to it only to end up going to waste if the students
can't access the site.
On the other hand, the traditional Chinese has smaller contributor base and is mainly in
Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. But they do not have to deal with the censorship issue nor to
risk flaunting with an arbitrary firewall with an unpublished set of rules.
Andrew
________________________________
From: Education <education-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org> on behalf of Nichole Saad
<nsaad(a)wikimedia.org>
Sent: August 24, 2017 1:40:13 PM
To: Wikimedia Education
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Education] Help the Education Team translate a survey about the
Wikipedia Education Program
Hi Andrew,
You are totally right. I just had Mandarin on the brain, having come from a
language exchange meet up and typed in auto mode. We originally had
simplified in mind, but your question made me think about which would be
more relevant to our specific community, and after asking the Asian
Wikimedian community, they adamantly said both are needed. So I will
request for *both simplified and traditional* and see if there is anyone
who is willing to help.
best regards,
Nichole
On Thu, Aug 24, 2017 at 8:31 AM, Andrew Leung <andrewcleung(a)hotmail.com>
wrote:
By "Mandarin Chinese", I think you meant
simplified Chinese? Simplified
vs. traditional Chinese are referring to written languages. Mandrain,
Cantonese and others are referring to spoken languages.
Andrew
________________________________
From: Education <education-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org> on behalf of
Nichole Saad <nsaad(a)wikimedia.org>
Sent: August 23, 2017 6:11:23 PM
To: Wikimedia Education; Wikimedia Translations; WMF All Staff
Subject: [Wikimedia Education] Help the Education Team translate a survey
about the Wikipedia Education Program
Dear [Affiliates, WMF Staff, Translators],
The Education Team at the Wikimedia Foundation will be running a survey in
mid-September about the perception of the Wikipedia Education Program in
order to better focus our communications and support materials to the needs
of our various audiences. In order for it to be easily accessible to as
many people as possible, we need help to translate the survey into as many
languages as we can.
Ideally, we would like the survey translated into at least these 5
languages: Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian, and Mandarin Chinese.
Translations in additional languages are also welcome, as long as the
survey can be fully translated in those languages.
We will be using a Google spreadsheet to perform the translations. This is
a logistical decision, as moving translations from Meta-wiki to Qualtrics
(the platform of choice to hold the survey) is very complicated.
If you are interested in helping and have some free time over the next two
weeks, please respond to me directly to let me know which language you can
help translate and I will follow up with more information. Our deadline
for the translations to be completed is September 12.
I look forward to hearing from you!
best,
--
*Nichole Saad*
WMF | Education Program Manager
nsaad(a)wikimedia.org
user: NSaad (WMF)
*Want to talk about the Wikipedia Education Program?*
Schedule a meeting:
https://calendly.com/nsaad-1
_______________________________________________
Education mailing list
Education(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
_______________________________________________
Education mailing list
Education(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
--
*Nichole Saad*
WMF | Education Program Manager
nsaad(a)wikimedia.org
user: NSaad (WMF)
*Want to talk about the Wikipedia Education Program?*
Schedule a meeting:
https://calendly.com/nsaad-1
_______________________________________________
Education mailing list
Education(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education