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| 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!
