1

Recently, you might have seen my general UIB brainstorm , however, it has come to simplify our Fluency UIBs’s info lines, and I’m looking for a little consensus for this change. Here’s some background information.

Right now, our Fluency UIBs have become a little too tall. They contain both the translated-language’s version of the text, and the English-translated text pushing for UIBs which become too tall. I’ve adapted most of our other UIBs to stack no more than 2 visible lines high - up to 4-6 words past “This author”. However, while we could remove the language version entirely (because this is the English wikiHow, obviously), I got thinking of some ways to simplify the English versions of each of these levels, but we’d have to be onboard for some changes - if implemented.

These changes would help make UIB tall sizes become more even, and equal when UIBs are stacked next to each other. I’m not going pixel by pixel, but making these changes, makes these UIBs the same size when viewed.

As of right now, our level Fluency UIBs are written as:

  • Level 0-This author speaks at a limited level of LanguageName.
  • Level 1-This author speaks at a basic level of LanguageName.
  • Level 2-This author speaks at an intermediate level of LanguageName.
  • Level 3-This author speaks at an advanced level of LanguageName.
  • Level 4-This author speaks LanguageName at a near-fluent level.
  • Level 5-This author speaks LanguageName as a native language.

However, here’s my thinking: let’s limit these even more.

  • Level 0 - This author can’t speak LanguageName.
  • Level 1 - This author understands basic LanguageName.
  • Level 2 - This author understands intermediate LanguageName.
  • Level 3 - This author understands advanced LanguageName.
  • Level 4 - This author converses in LanguageName near fluently.
    •
  • Level 5 - This author is fluent in LanguageName.

These limited versions would help provide a more common environment, so readers get the right information everytime, when perusing our Fluency UIBs - and if a go-ahead is given, I can make this change accordingly, but I want it to be more open to those who might have some opposition to making these changes.

2

My main concern with your proposed changes is that you are materially changing what’s being described in the current version versus your proposed version for most of these. For example, speaking a language on a limited level is not the same thing as not being able to speak a language at all. The same applies for each of these, because they’re materially different than the original versions.

3

I’d like to amend my previous list. How about:

  • Level 0 - This author speaks minimal LanguageName.
  • Level 1 - This author speaks basic LanguageName.
  • Level 2 - This author speaks intermediate LanguageName.
  • Level 3 - This author speaks advanced LanguageName.
  • Level 4 - This author speaks LanguageName near-fluently.
  • Level 5 - This author speaks LanguageName natively.

This should help achieve both sides. I copy-pasted the original versions in this version and built off that.

4

I would just change the word ‘minimal’ to the word ‘limited’ to align most closely with the original version.

5

ok. I’ll make those changes probably sometime between Thursday and Friday.

So here’s the final version of these wording (for my personal reference):

  • Level 0 - This author speaks limited LanguageName.
  • Level 1 - This author speaks basic LanguageName.
  • Level 2 - This author speaks intermediate LanguageName.
  • Level 3 - This author speaks advanced LanguageName.
  • Level 4 - This author speaks LanguageName near-fluently.
  • Level 5 - This author speaks LanguageName natively.
6

Can’t you just look at the wordings from Wikipedia and adapt those? Those wordings are quite solid. For example, for English (from Wikipedia):

See All pages with prefix - Wikipedia .

I don’t like how 5 is for “native” when “5” really just means it is proficient. If we wanted to be even more pedantic we could use CEFR.

7

Those wordings are too long and would make the overall size not jive with all the other sizes of all other UIBs here.

8

To add to @EpcotMagic ’s point, contributing and speaking are not the same thing. The Wikipedia version is different than the wikiHow version in what the UIBs are stating.

9

I don’t know why Wikipedia uses “contribute” but I agree with your assessment. When I think “contribute” it is more than just speaking, but also writing articles in that language. We can use “can speak” then and it would still be fine.

1 Like
10

Ok. I’ve gone in and made the changes. Thank you.