Talk:Key:language:*
Using language:<lg>=taught instead of yes
language:<lg> is getting used more and more to indicate what language the courses are given in and what the administration speaks. Especially in combination with `amenity=school; language:<lg>=yes` in bilingual areas, the language tag can be confusing. I opened up a discussion to change tagging on the tagging mailing list. Pietervdvn (talk) 15:17, 13 June 2022 (UTC)
language:LL=no
What do you think about language:LL=no if language is not supported in country where is an official language. Ex. restaurant in Poland where you cannot order meal in Polish. Dotevo (talk) 06:56, 13 November 2018 (UTC)
- Why would that be the case? Is it the official policy of the facility? We would not map the personal deficit of an untrained waiter to speak the county's language. --Polarbear w (talk) 09:47, 13 November 2018 (UTC)
I live in a bilingual area, so we are planning to widely use language:eu=yes for any type of service (not limited to language schools) that is offered in basque. This is important for us in order to support a minority language like ours, and the language does not depend so much on the personal there but on the site's policy, like accepting credit cards. I'd like to confirm that it is a proper use of the tag. Garaolaza@gmail.com (talk) 12:19, 16 April 2019 (UTC)
- >Note that the current use in language schools is not quite unambiguous, since
language:de=main
Language:<purpose>:<iso>
I think also (as supported by the contributions above) that the language tag would be useful to characterize many various amenities, as for example: shops, museums, galleries, information offices and boards, restaurants, cafes, vending machines, and others. For example:
- In a restaurant or cafe, it may be useful to know in advance whether a given language is used, and how (see table below).
- In a tourist monument, guided tours may be available in several languages. Even if a given language is not spoken by the guides, there may be written "foreign"-language descriptions of the rooms / buildings / objects etc., or brochures in the non-local language available.
- A shop / supermarket may have sales assistants and /or automatic cash registers mastering more than one language.
- Maps / information boards / guideposts may use several languages.
- In a gallery, the art objects may have descriptions in more than the expected (local - "default") language.
- A car / boat / bicycle rental office may have salespeople able to communicate in various languages.
These uses cannot be, in my opinion, sufficiently described by the current simple syntax
language:"iso" = <value>
Instead, I propose to add another specifier in the format:
language:<purpose>:"iso" = <value>
with some suggested values for the purposes:
| Purpose | Description |
|---|---|
| all | All purposes reasonably applicable for the specific type of amenity |
| descriptions | Written information on an information board / map / art objects etc. in the given language |
| guides | Language spoken by a part of guides in a monument with guided tours |
| inscriptions | The inscription(s) on a memorial, plaque, etc. use that language |
| menu | A printed menu in a restaurant / cafe / bar / pub etc. |
| panel | The button / touch panel of a vending machine is able to use that language |
| physicians | The physician(s) in the doctors office, clinic, or hospital are able to communicate in the given language |
| sales | Language which can be reliably expected to be spoken in a shop / sales point / rental office to communicate with the salesperson / cashier (and perhaps also in a tourist information office, even if they "sell the information for free") |
| self-checkout | The self-checkout machine uses the specified language (most often on the touchscreen) |
| taught | A language taught as subject in a language school |
| teaching | Language used for teaching |
| waiters | One can expect waiters in the restaurant / cafe / bar / pub etc. to communicate in that language |
| worship | The language is regularly used for services in the place of worship |
As for the values, "yes" and "no" are obvious options. I can also think of the value "limited" but it seems not easy to define generally what it would mean.
Other purposes and comments are of course welcome. --Hlv (talk) 16:26, 29 October 2019 (UTC)
- Thank you for the interesting proposal, Hlv. The best option would be to create a proposal page like "Proposed_features/Language_Purpose" following the format from Proposal process, and then send out an email to the Tagging mailing list to get comments about the proposed new keys. --Jeisenbe (talk) 22:53, 30 October 2019 (UTC)
POIs other than schools
I've generalized this article to describe usage that isn't connected to education. Non-schools currently account for 70% of all occurrences of language:*=* in OSM, including 7% that are shops, 6% that are places of worship, 6% that are healthcare facilities, 5% that are eateries, 4% that are ATMs, 4% that are tourism-related, 4% that are offices, 2% that are banks. Also, this tagging scheme has been documented alongside amenity=atm since 2014.
It's true that some businesses or facilities may support a minority language to a greater degree than others, but while we wait for Proposed features/Language Purpose, I think this page should acknowledge the fact that this "in use" key is already being used on a wider variety of POIs than the page originally described.
– Minh Nguyễn 💬 21:56, 30 March 2021 (UTC)