Babel/text

Template:Meta In other languages: Template:Lang-Babel

This page provides the framework for displaying the language ability of users on their user page. This helps with communication by listing the languages and the level thereof the user can understand.

Census in Babel

Example of language skill box

en This user speaks English as the first language. ja-1 この利用者は簡単な日本語を話します。

Not everyone at the meta speaks the same language. To help with communication Users can categorize themselves into different language categories on their user page. Example language groups are: en for English, de for German, and so on. Additionally, users can specify their level of proficiency in the language.

• 1 stands for basic knowledge, i.e. the ability to understand and answer simple questions in the language.
• 2 stands for intermediate knowledge.
• 3 stands for advanced or fluent knowledge, i.e. the ability to correct spelling and grammar errors in the language.
• Category without number stands for 1st language speakers (so-called mother tongue).

For example, de-1 refers to a user with basic skills in German, and en-3 refers to a user with advanced skills in English. The two-letter language code is the two-letter code as described in ISO 639. (See Complete list of language wikis available).

Here is a sample of template usage: see the example of language skill box on the above. If your language has templates already on Commons, you can copy them to meta. (See Commons:Commons:Babel).

To draw the box above you write as the below:

{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="25%" style="float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:0,5em; background:none;"
|-
|<center>Language skill box with [[Meta:Babel templates|Babel templates]]: </center>
|-
|{{User en}}{{User ja-1}}
|-
|}

How to add your language level to your user page

• 1: Select your language(s) and level, e.g. you speak english fluently (en-3) and basic spanish (es-1)
• 2: Add the matching templates {{user en-3}} and {{user es-1}} to the end of your user page.

Your user page is now listed in the Category:user en-3 and Category:user en for english, Category:user es-1 and Category:user es for spanish, all of which are subcategories of Category:Users.

Code Languages

af ar ay bg br ca da de dsb el en eo es et fi fr fy he hi hr hsb id is it ja ko la lb lv mi ms nl no pl pt qu ro ru sk sl sq sr sv th uk zh zh-min-nan

Categories and templates

Here a sample list of categories and templates needed. The order of creation is important:

1. Create the main category, (noted 1)
2. Create the secondary categories (noted 2-4)
3. Create the templates (noted 5-8). Template for 1st language speaker is green. Others are blue.

Current work... (Add your language here if it isn't in the next list)

Quarters of Babel

Babel templates are used on some other projects including

• Wikipedia
  • ast:
  • bg:
  • br:
  • ca:
  • cs:
  • de:
  • en:
  • eo:
  • es:
  • fr:
  • ga:
  • id:
  • it:
  • ja:
  • ko:
  • li: (still to be developed)
  • mi:
  • na:
  • nl:
  • pl:
  • pt:
  • ru:
  • simple:
  • sl:
  • sr:
  • sv:
  • uk:
• Wikinews
  • n:fr: French Wikinews
• Commons: Wikimedia Commons

Some new attempts are going on including

• Project lang oriented
  • de:
  • it:
  • es:
  • pl:
• Improvement of usability
  • Template to put Babel templates
  • w:de:
  • w:en:
  • w:es:
  • w:fr:
  • n:fr: French Wikinews
  • w:pl:
  • Commons: Wikimedia Commons
  • Color gradation (pale blue, light tarquois, blue)
  • w:en: