languages

Simple wordpress language switcher

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Easily create a multilingual wordpress site with no need for complicated plugins

this example is for English and German languages but could equally be for anything

  • 1) Create 2 new posts in your 2 languages eg. Welcome and willkommen.
  • 2) Create a new menu called languages add a menu item for each page.
  • 3) Rename the menu items english and deutsch.
  • 4) Add the new language menu to the website in a suitable position, (eg. using a widget or theme settings).
  • 5) Create 2 new menus one for your german pages and another for the english pages.
  • 6) Install the nice and lightweight zen menu logic plugin, activate and check the settings that your main menu is selected.
  • 7) Go to your german home page and down the bottom is the zen logic menu select options – select the german menu.
  • 8) Go to your english home page and down the bottom is the zen logic menu select options – select the english menu.

You’re good to go!

The one disadvantage with this setup is that you will always be directed to the home page when you click the language menu item.

There are also WordPress plugins to add images to menus so on your languages menu you could instead use flag icons

Vocabulist: bookmarklet to help with learning languages

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If you want to learn a language it is a good idea to start reading a book in your preferred foreign language, reaching for the dictionary for any unknown words. This way you will increase your grammar and vocabulary in a natural manner whilst getting the hand of colloquial expressions. However reaching for the dictionary and searching for words is time consuming and gets in the way of reading the text. The vocabulist bookmarket found on the Ejectamenta website lets you have instant translations merely by hovering over unknown words. This works for just about any website (except those using iframes, like ebay!). The software tool optionally speaks the translated words as well. Just drag the bookmarklet to your browser bookmarklet bar to get started, then click on the bookmark button to activate the tool, next find a book (for instance an online Spanish version of Don Quixote) and start reading in your new language.