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I sometimes see questions in a foreign language, translated below. Is it acceptable to answer the question in both English and the OP's language(if I speak it) to make the process simpler for the OP? Or does that encourage improper use of foreign languages here?

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As far as other languages we have extended discussions about it already in meta, the key points are:

  • We use English to communicate in the site, both Questions or Answers should be written using a certain level of English, enough to be understood;
  • Questions made in other languages do not belong in the site, if by any chance a poor soul with some language knowledge and Google translate skills wants to edit the post and translate it that is fine, else we can close them as NARQ or too localized;
  • Answers to any question should be given in English, if you want to try to add the same content in another language to make yourself more understandable to the OP go ahead, but try not to do that in a extensive post.

Users that post questions in other languages normally do not participate on the site or will even bother to come back and check the replies, specially if they are in English. You can see a lot of questions that even with translation under them will be closed as too localized because the information on them is not enough and the OP will not reply to comments.

Its a shame, but that is the way it is. Localization of SE sites using other langauges is discussed with many for and against points, nothing we can do more for now.

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  • Can we get these bullet points in the FAQ for askUbuntu? I was looking there just now to verify English was the proper language to use, but saw nothing about language in the FAQ. It would be good to document this there, for when closing/flagging questions, to link to in a comment.
    – dobey
    Apr 9, 2013 at 13:27

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