Thursday 10 January 2013

parlez vous...?

I'm not a great speaker of languages, other than the solitary one I was born into. I studied, briefly, French and Spanish at school, and that's about it. And so many fantastic non-English language blogs exist.

Sunflowers in Japan
Japanese sunflowers photo by Konstantin Leonov

But so does Google Translate. This extremely handy, and very speedy, invention enables blogs to be translated into English, or any other language you chose. Which means the amount of fantastic blogs to read has dramatically increased.

Some blogs have added the Google Translate device to their sidebars (like I have - see the end of this post to find out how to do the same) and although, at times, the translations can have strange quirks to them, and it can take a bit of puzzling to decipher them, it's still fascinating to suddenly understand a blog that previously only a language course would have allowed you to read.

If a site doesn't have Google Translate then all is not lost. If you copy and paste the blog address into Google Search, the results will often provide you with an option to "translate this page", next to the link. Another alternative is to go to Google Translate itself and paste the name of the blog into the search box here. Then choose the language you want the blog to be translated into from the available buttons displayed, and if you then click the translated link of the blog (displayed on the right hand side of the screen), the whole page will be translated for you as Google opens it.

Lifehacker has another way to translate blogs in a RSS feed, if you fancy experimenting a little more.

Here's a few of my favourite non-English language blogs, with very handy translator buttons laid on -

Made By Night - a wonderfully photographed Belgian sewing blog

Neferi - a Swedish craft blog about crochet

Gedane - a French craft blog with some beautiful images


Some blogs which combine the blogger's native language and English -

Kiertoidea - Recycled Ideas - a Finnish blog about recycling and crafts

Pieni Lintu  - a photography and lifestyle blog from Finland

Nany's Kloset  - a popular style blog from Florida, by way of Venezuela

Annemarie's Haakblog - a crochet blog from Germany


And here are some wonderful blogs that have no English at all, or very little. Enjoy the images and design, or follow the instructions above to use Google Translate -

Isabelle Kessedjian - beautiful French illustration

Tea and Rice Balls - a beautifully stylish blog from Japan

Somasti - beautiful Finnish photography

Griottes - French style and some incredibly delicious looking food...


(If I've got any of the country of origins for the blogs wrong, please let me know! Sometimes people just don't say where they live, and so I've had to do some detective work...)

Adding the Google Translate button to a Blogspot blog (like this one) is incredibly easy. In your design dashboard, simply go to Layout, then Add a Gadget. Translate is quite close to the top of the gadget list that appears in a pop-up window (or at least it was in mine. If it isn't in yours, scroll down until you find it). Simply click 'Save' to add it.

Please leave a comment if you know any non-English language blogs that are worth a look/read!

14 comments:

  1. Great suggestions!
    nauticalowl.blogspot.com

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    1. Thank you! I've really enjoyed putting this post together :-)

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  2. Replies
    1. You're very welcome - your blog is beautiful!

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  3. Michele,

    Peu importe où nous vivons, je vois que, au début de l'année 2013
    apprécier les mêmes choses!
    Tournesol! J'ai aussi enregistré mon tournesol!
    http://mainitinokiseki.blogspot.com
    J'ai vraiment aimé ton blog!
    Un gros câlin!

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    1. Thank you! Your blog is beautiful too, and full of sunflowers!

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  4. Thank you Michele for this post <3

    It was also great to find interesting blogs that were new to me :)

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    1. You're very welcome :-) Glad you found the post useful as well :-)

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  5. well, thank you again for featuring my blog amongst such beautiful ones... There are all so amazing! I am so not sure about my photography skills so it double touches me you like it ;-)
    As for where I am from, I am Belgian. And I used to translate most of my posts in English but got lazy with time... sorry for that ;-)

    I have a hard time suggesting just one beautiful non-English speaking blog. there are many...

    Thanks, again!!!

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    1. I was a bit embarrassed at featuring your blog again so soon, Nat! But it's such a good example of a blog that combines languages (and has great photos!)that I just had to find a place for it :-)

      And I don't blame you for not translating your posts - it's a lot of work just writing posts once! Thankfully the translate button makes life a lot easier... ;-)

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  6. I never thought to add a translator on the my page, I'll look into it tonight. And loving the blogs you posted -am so smitten with the amazing outfits and photographs on nanys klozet!

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    1. They're great, aren't they? Yes, I hadn't realised until I did this post how easy it was to add the translator button. Even on blogs where the images speak for themselves, it's still nice to know what's being written :-)

      Thanks for the comment :-)

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  7. Happy!   Honor!   Thanks!
    なんと幸せ! 光栄! ありがとう

    I'm very happy!    mukup!
    とても喜んでます! むくぴ!

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    1. Thank you so much for your comment - and the translation!

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Thank you for leaving a comment - it makes my day to read what you say!