Beach Web site calls out to visitors in native tongue

Posted to: News Virginia Beach

By Richard Quinn
The Virginian-Pilot
© February 3, 2008

VIRGINIA BEACH

Bienvenidos a Virginia Beach. Que, no comprendes?

Willkommen zum Strand! Konfus?

Can't understand? Confused? Don't know "strand" is German for "beach"?

Well, that's how non-English readers used to feel on Virginia Beach's City Hall Web site.

No more.

The city recently launched a translator for its Web home, www.vbgov.com. With a few clicks, a visitor can swap the site's English text for Spanish, German, Arabic and five other languages.

Russian didn't make the cut because the translation didn't pass a city review. Chinese, Japanese and Korean will work if a computer already can handle those alphabets.

"We work every day to improve the product," said Kevin Fairley, a city multimedia coordinator. "To make it more accessible to more people. "

The new service - already used about 300 times - may soon spread to the city's economic development site and the one for the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center.

Hmm, how do you say "shark" in French?

Richard Quinn, (757) 222-5119, richard.quinn@pilotonline.com

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Tervetuloa rannalle

Submitted by timot on Sun, 02/03/2008 at 2:58 pm.

Ok, I see City of VB have translation link on its website. There's not too many European languages, German, Dutch, Greek. What happened to Finnish, Swedish, etc. Here's to reporter: Hai is Shark, Tervetuloa is welcome, ranta is beach, subject line Tervetuloa rannalle means welcome to the beach. Go Patriots !!!

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Hmm translating foreign languages at the beach

Submitted by contractorva on Sun, 02/03/2008 at 2:33 pm.

I wonder if once they get them to come to the beach..and they curse in their own language at the oceanfront..if the beach could hire a translator to convert it to English & then fine them due to the vulgar language law there. how about it Va Beach? Maybe pick up some extra yen, marks, rupees, dinar to add to the kitty.

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