Foreign Languages

[Former_Member]

Hi I was wondering if any of you have used the languages feature and if it's brought you any more views? I was going to go through and translate everything to French and German then I realized how time consuming it will be and was wondering if it is worth it. Any experience with it would help a lot! Thank you!

[TheSmileEmporium]

I havent heard of this and did a quick look in ESTY help.Is it anew feature? as it seems from what I read you can only list in the laungauge you register in.If you list in another you need to be able to conduct buisness in that langauge.Im interested in if this has changed.

[Former_Member]

A friend of mine who is from Brazil told me that all my listing including the currency is translated to Portuguese. I speak French and it's nice to know that I don't have to translate everything.
I'll conduct business in both english and french though and that's a great advantage.

[Former_Member]

You can enroll in French or German. In your "info and appearances" section under "languages" Then it allows you to edit all your shop info. But then you also need to edit each one of your listings. Seems very time consuming....But then as Chantal mentioned, does the shop automatically get translated if someone from say South America is looking at it? So far Spanish is not an option to enroll in, which I speak, but I haven't had any customers inquire in Spanish so I just don't really get it, and I haven't seen much info on the forums about it either.

Thoughts, experiences, anyone!!!!!!?????

[Former_Member]

Unless you're fluent enough in a lagnuage to be able to conduct business in said language, best to leave as is. I speak French & German, but only enough to get around a city, order cake and chat up cute boys, so I'm leaving my shop in English.

Most German & French people have a good enough grasp of English, in my experience, to be able to place an order on an English-speaking website.

[BeadworkAndCoe]

I have English and German, as I am actually German and married to a Brit.
A lot of Germans speak English, but some don't. I think for a buyer it is always nice to be addressed in their own language anyway and it might give them more confidence to close the deal. These automated translations are often quite useless and I wouldn't want to rely on them more than needs be.
I do get some views from German search terms, but of course not as much as from English ones :)

[Former_Member]

Nothing gets automatically translated. Chantal's friend may be using some kind of in-browser translator. Google Translate can be incorporated into Chrome to machine-translate webpages.

Kristen, you won't have had enquiries in Spanish because your listing isn't in Spanish. People won't assume you can understand them; they'll ask in English, if at all.

Don't translate into French and German unless you can speak that language fluently enough to do business in it. Automated translations come out horribly mangled and it doesn't instil confidence in a buyer.

[Former_Member]

From what I understand selecting French and German indicates to buyers you are able to transact business in those two languages. Unless you are fluent enough to actually conduct business, compose convos etc. you should not choose these languages.

[Former_Member]

I understood this policy the same way Katrina did - if you are offering things in a different language, it implies you are able to conduct business in it, too. Things could get icky quickly if you aren't able to express yourself clearly, or understand what the buyer is asking. I wonder how well this translate feature even works, since none of the programs I've seen have been able to get close to capturing the essence of a foreign language.

[HausofAriella]

I briefly considered enrolling in the French, then I realized how many words I don't know that relate to my items. I would have had to look up about a quarter of the words in my listings, so I know I'd have trouble responding to buyers' questions. Also, considering I have trouble figuring out what some convos in English are asking, I'd be totally lost if someone had poor grammar in French.

If you just go through and run your listings through Google translate you 1) will have listings that probably don't make sense and 2) you still wouldn't be able to answer buyers' questions in another language. Like Katrina and Sara I think that you should stay away from that feature unless you're truly fluent in one of those languages.

[Former_Member]

Thanks for everyone's advice. Now if they could offer Spanish as an option I could easily do business that way!

I really didn't know how it worked, thanks.

[thedoggiehouse]

When I start Etsy I have my descriptions on English and Spanish because were I live spanish is the first language but then I errase all and leave English because my website and blog is not biligual so. I hope on the feature I will promote my Etsy on my Island and then I will do all over again spanish and english including website and blog.

the team Etsy Español and Etsy Latino and Etsy Puerto Rico and others latins teams we want to Etsy be biligual we need to use our spanish here for more sales we hope on the future it will be :)

[Former_Member]

So let me get this straight, the site is not automatically translated? my friend said that all her friends said that all the titles and descriptions were translated in portuguese, even the money was shown in the Brazilian currency. All my items are listed in English and I did not select french because I don't to translate all of my items. I do speak and read french so conducting business in that language is not a problem for me but to translate 131 items is just too much work.
I'll have to do some more research on that and I'll post what I find out.

[Former_Member]

Amy of HowVeryCharming was correct in saying that it is not translated automatically. I quizzed a relative in France and she said that my items were still in English but the money was changed into Euros.

So I guess my viewers in Brazil are using some kind of in-browser translator. That's too bad.
One day when I have the time, I'll change my items in French, but until then, they're all in English.

[amberstudios]

Kristen,

you have to try it! Just translate a few listings and you will see.
I'm planning to do it before the Holidays. Some listings in French, some in German.
I need translator to understand my feedbacks!!!! I have a lot customers from those countries.
Happy selling!