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I am working on a new challenge. Is is a global site with multi-language support. My task is to design a support portal that will be in English only. This same support portal may also pull in portions of the site such as product pages. Due to the site architecture, which is massive and not going to change, the user will still be in their originally selected language. So for example, if the user selects French, the site will change to English, then if any product pages are pulled in they will be in French, with any portal information displaying in English.

I am still trying to wrap my head around this concept. I've looked an I didn't find any related posts, if there is one I will gladly move this discussion. If there are any questions I will gladly answer them.

Which brings me to my questions: Is it a good practice to have multiple languages on the same page? If not, what is better? If so, are there any best practices or practical examples?

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I don't see much options here, but to provide more information to the user in their native language.

  1. Provide a small disclaimer in their default language that explains that the support portal is in English.

  2. Use color-coded layout to distinguish between English and native text or contents. Use an icon or flag, if you need to repeatedly show contents of different languages.

  3. Provide guides in native language on how to take advantage of in-browser on-the-fly translation feature like in Google Chrome. You may also use third-party plugins. Here is a good list : https://www.sitepoint.com/10-jquery-translator-plugins/

Obviously, having multiple languages in one page is obviously not recommended.

Hope this helps.

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  • flagsarenotlanguages.com/blog and wplang.org/never-use-flags-language-selection: do not use flags.
    – Steve Dodier-Lazaro
    Aug 31, 2016 at 12:32
  • @Eshwaren - When you say flag, are you referring to a visual indicator, not the country flag? I do like the idea of a visual indicator. Which I think right now is through country flags. We may have to change that.
    – Johnny UX
    Sep 1, 2016 at 14:53
  • @JohnnyUX Yes, like a badge or something. Certain country flags are quite synonymous with users, although abbreviation like EN, ZH, FR works as well.
    – Eshwaren Manoharen
    Sep 2, 2016 at 2:51
  • @SteveDL Interesting resource. I agree. Given I am from Malaysia, origin of Malay. lol. But with a specific set of countries, especially famous ones, I think country flags can manage.
    – Eshwaren Manoharen
    Sep 2, 2016 at 2:57

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