Switched to Facebook's Hindi interface to test it for a day, before I recommend it to some. I was instantly surprised that a huge company like Facebook could release it with such a minimalistic level of testing, totally ignoring its third largest user base in the world (India), for a language which is having the fourth highest number of native speakers on the planet. Observing my news feed for just a few minutes, the gracious mash up of Hindi and English I saw was hilarious and shameful at the same time.
It knows how to translate the verb 'Likes':
- X को Y का लिंक पसंद है | (Correct)
- X likes Y's स्तिथि (Really, Facebook? That's all you can come up with?)
- X ने अपनी स्तिथि पर टिपण्णी की (Correct)
- X commented on Y's चित्र
- X commented on Y's लिंक
It knows that s with an apostrophe ('s) translates to 'का' (used above in the first sentence), but again doesn't use it at all the places:
- X को Y's दर्ज करना पसंद है |
If you try to close your homepage with an incomplete status(without posting it), it shows you a dialog box with two buttons literally like this: 1) "इस पृष्ठ को छोड़ दो" 2) "Stay on this page". (Yes, exactly one out of the two buttons in Hindi ! )
Many other sentences are just plain not translated.
Awards:
- X commented on your पोस्ट on Y's दीवार (No joke!)
- X and 4 अन्य मित्र like this (Wow.)
I wouldn't recommend Facebook's Hindi Interface to anyone. :)
