L10n:WorldReady/Identifying Cultural Differences
One of the keys to the World Ready Program will be to identify and share cultural differences, so products and campaigns can be designed and tuned not only to avoid problems, but to inspire and engage people in many regions around the world.
The key in this effort will be for our mozilla community members to gather and share information about cultural differences in fast, efficient, interesting ways. The book "Stuff Parisians Like" by Oliver Maguy offers some insightful perspectives about how Parisians and French people view the world, and how they differ from other cultures, in both an educational and entertaining way. We could use this as model for gather and sharing cultural differences.
Some of the topics categories that would be interesting to explore in each culture might include the following.
What language(s) do they speak, and/or aspire to speak.
What languages and terms are intermixed/subsituted into their language
e.g. interjections of english into french and german... examples...
What are interesting meanings put behind english words. (p2)
What words, phrases, or concepts don't exist or a have extreme difficulty in translation or localization. For example the term [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharing "sharing"] when used in the context of giving something, or joint use of something, in English has this kind of problem in German. [need more details and better explaination of this]
Where do people aspire to live or travel?
What forms of Art and Music are most desired and enjoyed?
What kinds of thinks are considered 'not cool', inappropriate, or offensive?
What kinds of fashion are liked/disliked?
What are some impressions about importance of of family / marrige /
What are some things or sensitive areas that people feel guilty about?
What are some things or sensitive areas that people know about, but don't quite understand?
What are some special insights or understandings that people in the locale they they thing are superior to other cultures?
What are some things that people consider being indulgent?
What are some things that people consider by desirable? -from the past in their culture? -borrowed from other cultures?
What are the cultural views on food and drink. -foods/drinks that are enjoyed? -foods/drinks that are disliked?