Flags Are Terrible At Representing Languages
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- čas přidán 3. 03. 2022
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SOURCES & FURTHER READING
www.flagsarenotlanguages.com/b...
blog.weglot.com/flags-to-repr...
localizejs.com/articles/why-u...
www.britannica.com/list/flags...
www.statista.com/statistics/9...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geograp...
www.verbling.com/articles/pos...
forum.duolingo.com/comment/25...
Which flag do you think should represent which language?
I remember being on an EU site after brexit, where the english language was represented by the Irish flag.
Quick thing I want to point out: European and Brazilian Portuguese are pretty different, and Duolingo uses Brazil's flag because they teach the Brazilian dialect.
12:05
Name explain - 'People aren't really learning their own native languages on duolingo'
I have occasionally seen websites that offer (for example) American English and British English as separate options. For those, the US and UK flags are (IMO) suitable.
Fun fact: there is an ongoing fight over what the flag of Yiddish should be, since there has never been a predominantly-Yiddish-speaking country or province. And also because Yiddish scholars are constantly searching for reasons to fight each other.
I once saw an image of a website where the italian language was represented by the flag of San Marino and that will stay one of my most favorite images of all time
When I look for language options in video games I prefer to see my native language to be shown as "한국어" Rather than "Korean" in the list of languages, because it is much faster to beeline to the bottom of the list and find it somewhere around 日本語 简体中文 and 繁體中文 compared to finding K from a list of roman alphabet names.
The flags used to represent each language probably goes deeper than just the languages themselves, but the dialects within those languages. If the American flag is used, there is a chance that American English would be spoken, shown, or taught. The Portuguese flags are a perfect example of this, since the Portuguese in Portugal proper and Brazil are different.
As a web dev, I have three arguments FOR flags.
I'm a Brazilian and I would never click on a Portugal flag assuming I would find Brazilian Portuguese there. I know it will be a language I can kinda read, but I also know it would be just different enough for me to be constantly focusing on what's different (almost like an uncanny valley thing) and not pay attention to what I should. I'd rather just read it in English, or even Spanish.
As a brazilian I see the usage of flags as something good because portuguese in Brazil and Portugal are really different not only with the wild accent difference but with many words, to the point that some common words in Portugal are considered swearing in Brazil. The flag signals which one you are refering to more clearly.
Unless the flag used is blatantly wrong, I really wouldn't take notice or even care. And I'd rather see flags then not, 'cause honestly, I just think it looks neat.
I just assumed the flag represented which version of the language is being used. Each country varies in grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. American English is different from UK English. Spanish is different throughout South and Central America, Mexico, and Spain… The flags help clarify which system is being used. I know I’ve been confused many times before realizing I was reading something from another English dialect
I like when the language selection says the name of the language, followed by the location in parenteses, with no flags:
Being understood is more important than being accurate.
Wikipedia has been doing this the right way for a while, just denote a language by the native name. Anyone speaking the language will be able to search for it and recognize it without issue.
Esperanto has its own flag. And I think it would be cool if other languages had their own flags too. But this would raise a lot of political debates. What even is a language, and what's just a dialect?
Game developer here: I use that method because it's simple and easy to understand for the players.