User:Gniw/Explanation of Babel codes
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I believe Babel codes should be explained.
On this English user page, my Babel codes are listed in descending order of fluency.
zh-yue and zh: My mother tongue is Cantonese, a dialect of Chinese. Unfortunately, Wikipedia’s Babel does not correctly distinguish between the spoken and written languages; as a result, it is unclear whether Babel’s “zh” code means the spoken or written language, even though ability to speak the language is completely irrelevant for working on Wikipedia. In my opinion, this inconsistency shows a fundamental flaw in the design of Wikipedia’s Babel system, partly due to an insufficient understanding of the Chinese language (and perhaps also Hebrew, Arabic, etc.). My “zh” code refers to my “mother tongue” being written Chinese (中文) and not spoken Mandarin (漢語).
en-4: The “en-4” refers to my cousin, a native speaker, telling me “You talk basically the same English as I do”, back when I was still living in Hong Kong.
fr-1: “Cet utilisateur peut contribuer avec un niveau élémentaire de français” (This user can contribute with an elementary level of French) refers to having studied it for about a year in Hong Kong and being able to read somewhat (with much help from cognates to English). I however believe there’s something fundamentally wrong how French is taught in Canada: continuing to study it in Canada failed to improve my French, despite it being an official language here.
ja-1: “この利用者は少しだけ日本語を話すことができます。” (This user can only speak a little Japanese) refers to my having studied it for a term (but completely confused by its grammar); the disparity between English/French/German grammar and Finnish grammar has, IMHO, reconditioned me to try Japanese again, so hopefully things will improve in time.
(he-1 should follow since I am studying it right now, but I cannot even understand the key given by the “he-1” code, so my exceptionally low level of Hebrew is obviously practically useless here. In case you wonder about my dabbling in some of the Hebrew-related articles…)
fi-1: “Tämä käyttäjä puhuu suomea vähän” (This user can speak Finnish a little bit) refers to having read books on Finnish I borrowed from the library. I can understand much less Finnish than French, but surprisingly I find Finnish grammar easier to understand than, say, Swedish or Irish.
de-1: “Dieser Benutzer hat grundlegende Deutschkenntnisse” (This user has foundational knowledge of German) refers to my having studied it for 3 terms. Not having to deal with it in real life, however, I have almost forgotten everything.
The “fi-1” key used to use the verb “osaa” (“can”), which was an excellent choice given Wikipedia’s ambiguity about whether spoken or written languages are meant; unfortunately it now uses “puhuu” (speaks), which IMHO is worse given the situation.
The “fr-1” and “de-1” keys are excellent with their choice of words.
