[talk-ph] Usability of translating Wikidata world places to Tagalog/Filipino

[Ronny Ager-Wick]

In my honest opinion, I think most people, Tagalog speaking included, would be 
confused rather than helped by Alemanya and Estados Unidos. Nobody calls them 
that! And the C/K and V/B replacement isn't really helpful either. I don't 
know anyone who would use anything but the original spelling of Cavite and 
Bulacan - not to mention China. Hapon, maybe... I have heard some old people 
say it, but if they were to search it, I can't imagine anyone using that 
rather than Japan. Although most people who are old enough to say Hapon 
instead of Japan tend not to search the net that much... It's a generalization 
- no offense! :)

I'd say it undesirable to use Tagalog names - doesn't help anybody and 
outright confuses most people.

Take into account that the Filipinos I know is a statistically small sample 
and my opinions are based on this small sample.
Ronny.


On 2017-05-04 12:55, maning sambale wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I started this conversation in OSMPH slack but would like to open
> discussion in this list.  Also apologies if this is not entirely
> related to OSM but a very close project since as per Eugene's
> assessment wikidata community is not very active in the Philippines.
>
> Our team at Mapbox is pushing for completing Wikidata places
> translation to several languages [0] including Filipino/Tagalog.  The
> aim is to connect the two projects and leverage from the data that
> both project have (location in OSM, translations in Wikidata). [1]
>
> Eugene posted suggestions, here's our conv in Slack
>
> maning [April 26th at 10:49 AM]
> @here what's our best practice for name tagalog?  We use english names right?
>
> seav [Apr 26]
> We should use the Tagalog translation if it is available and well
> attested. Examples: Maynila (Manila), Kabite (Cavite), Bulakan
> (Bulacan), Hilagang Samar (Northern Samar), Alemanya (Germany),
> Estados Unidos (United States), Hapon (Japan), Tsina (China).
>
> My question is while this is desirable, is it essential for locals in
> the Philippines or travelling abroad to use a navigation app with
> translated places in Filipino/Tagalog.  In most cases Filipinos are
> comfortable with using English names for places (e.g. "Germany"
> instead of "Alemanya")
>
> [0] https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Planemad_mapbox/World_places_translation_project
> [1] https://www.mapbox.com/blog/scaling-openstreetmap-wikidata-knowledge/
>