Multilingual Forum- why not!

[nidamo]

Many sellers are not English speakers, They speak very litle English and often use google translator to communicate with buyers. These, have no chance to be really active on Fiverr forum and blogs, except if they buy articles to post them. Why couldn’t they write in a language they master ?!
Activity here is essential to have the chance to be a Top Seller one day. Those who don’t master English language can see their chances going to zero.
Am I wrong ?

My Best Regards to all of you

[emmaki]

You don’t need to post on the forum to be a top seller. I didn’t start posting on here until I was TRS, so that is a misleading point.

There are a few posts in Spanish, French around, but they’re not really active. If you want to have a successful online business and use a marketplace like Fiverr which in the main operates in English, then learning English and improving it to intermediate level and beyond is a necessity.

Otherwise, just stick to making sales locally, which will not be as lucrative. It makes perfect sense to improve your English if you want to work online. More opportunities is just the start of a long list of benefits both personally and professionally.

[edume]

I also agree that there should be a multi-language website. Just think of all the business fiverr is loosing by only having English. Należy Fiverr myślałem o wielu języku dawno temu. Fiverr应该很久以前想过多国语言。

[misscrystal]

I thought you could choose your language when you set up your account.

I never came to the forum until I was a Top Rated Seller. Most of my sales are in English speaking countries so it would be a huge advantage for a seller to communicate in English.

[emmaki]

Fiverr does have language options (English, Spanish, French, Dutch and Portuguese at the time of writing–German is a notable omission…). However, this is just the overlay. A Dutch seller posted on here some time ago about some (beta?) test that Fiverr did where EVERYTHING was translated mechanically. The results were predictably dire. That there were no non-European languages is telling, too. I’ve long suggested that at least the help/FAQ pages have translations into more languages (especially South/South-East Asian), so that newbies from those countries with limited English skills could easily understand how Fiverr works. It would cut down on a LOT of issues.

But that said, you can speak Cantonese/Mandarin and Polish (or some Slavic language, @edume). These countries are not generally rich, and so the clients will not be looking to pay big dollar bills. Any talented freelancer who wants to make bank will realize quickly that learning English is the only way to go–another benefit is the acres of free education available online for just about anything.

But sure, post your gig in a poor country’s language and make hay with the $5 busybodies. Personally, I don’t want to work with people from a country where $1/average wage is the norm. There’s too much of a discrepancy between perceived value there. I’m just not going to spend a lot of time on a $5 order, even if that could be another person’s weekly wage–I can’t even buy a coffee with it. I would hope these people would realize that and go to another seller.

Fiverr is moving away from cheap and cheerful–or at least trying to. Pandering to this thinking is not going to happen. I’m all for a multilingual forum as I enjoy languages, but let’s be real here. As an Israeli company–and Israel has a huge startup culture–why do you think Hebrew isn’t represented?

Follow the money. That’s the only thing that matters. Learn English and open up your world. I support Fiverr introducing limited language translations–professionally done–but not this approach. Does any other global marketplace do this? No. Should they? No. There are a lot of idiots out there. What if one of them only spoke German/limited English, so naturally preferred to speak German, and got annoyed because an English-speaking seller tried to work with badly translated German both ways which led to misunderstandings?

I have seen a review from a German complaining (a 2-star review! In German, obvs. What a nightmare—99% of viewers won’t know what the moan is…) about an Indian seller’s inability to speak German (lol) when he had a gig description in English–and despite the review, the WORK WAS STILL GOOD. Think about that. You deliver good work but some asshat buyer gives you a two star review because you don’t speak Czech and live in Fiji. Absolute nonsense.

…and @edume–an ability to use Google Translate isn’t that smart. I don’t speak either of those languages, and maybe you do. I don’t know. But if you don’t, then you just probably sound illiterate in that target language–stick to the international language of business. It’s simple and doesn’t raise a bunch of issues.

[fonthaunt]

If you didn’t have some degree of moderation on other forums, you’d probably also get a lot of spam and adult site posts. This forum was covered with them in various languages for a while. While moderators who can read other languages with using google are around, it’s harder than it looks without several. If none have time to translate, the non-English posts often have to be removed to a hidden queue. For ad purposes, I would suggest using English. Fiverr HQ in Israel uses English as the primary business language online.

As far as getting ranks or TRS, the forum is seldom considered. Not many of the TRS use the forum. You could make your own unofficial Fiverr forum in WordPress and in your language. If people are searching, they’ll find you. (Just an opinion.)

[fonthaunt]

They seem to be doing well without much localization. You could always start your own site in multiple languages, especially if you can write those fluently and didn’t just translate in an attempt to look better.

[misscrystal]

English is the accepted language of commerce throughout the world.

The reason is simple; at least 80% of the world’s consumers are in English speaking countries. You need to speak the language of most of your buyers.