A list of standardized keywords for language learning/teaching posts to replace the current chaos, where such articles under many different keywords. The result is that potential readers have little chance of finding what interests them, so quality articles remain in limbo. The suggested list could perhaps appear as a sticky post feature.
Articles for learning Chinese, for example, can appear under five different tags #cn, #china, #chinese, #learnchinese, and #mandarin. #cn, #china, #chinese, and #mandarin, for example, are too general (the first three refer to the country or posts in that language) or too ambiguous (#chinese could refer to Chinese people or culture, and #mandarin could refer to a type of orange, ducks or government officials. The only unambiguous tag would be #learnchinese, which could be extended, if need be, to #learnchinese-cantonese or #learnchinese-shanghainese, for example. The other languages of East Asia are unambiguous: #learnjapanese and #learnkorean would be appropriate tags.
Popular Languages with 50 Million or More Speakers
Similar standardized tags could be established for other popular languages with 50 million or more speakers (based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers):
East Asia: #learnchinese, #learnjapanese, #learnkorean
South Asia: #learnhindi, #learnurdu, #learnbengali, #learnpunjabi, #learnmarathi, #learntelugu, #learntamil
SE Asia: #learnindonesian, #learnmalaysian), #learnjavanese, #learnvietnamese
Europe: #learnspanish, #learnitalian, #learnportuguese, #learnfrench, #learnenglish, #learngerman, #learnrussian
MENA: #learnarabic, #learnfarsi
Africa: #learnhausa, #learnswahili
Other language tags could of course be included. The languages of Europe are especially popular:
However, this would make the list of suggested language tags a bit unmanageable. I think it would be sufficient to recommend adding the #learn prefix to the standard Wikipedia-listed English name of each language ( #learnhungarian and #learnromanian are OK, but #learnmagyar and #learnrumanian would be problematic).
An earlier, related post:
https://steemit.com/cn/@wentong-syhhae/steemit-language-lovers-unite-steemit
Some earlier posts related to Chinese language learning:
Who I Am
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@wentong-syhhae/enthusiastic-intp-polyglot
Support you !
Thank you. Steem is a lonely place: this means a lot to me!
haha...... Steemit is a crowded place for me, I saw all kind of people here. It is like a real world!
By the way, I got the reply from help team about the language tag. I hope it helps!
@vandadream you can use whatever tags you want. The tags that are shown in the "Explore" page are based on the ones that recieve the most awards.
Thanks for the update. Unfortunately, the team's answer misses the point. I very much appreciate the freedom that comes from the lack of arbitrary/bureaucratic rules, regulations and punishments. At the same time, I can see that lack of guidelines or suggestions is problematic.
(1) Because people don't think carefully about the long-term consequences of their tag choices, "whatever tags you want" leads to chaos.
Non-native speakers of English often don't realize that there are meaning differences between singular and plural tags:
#weed can refer to cannabis, but #weeds refers to unwanted plant growth.
#learnenglish is less ambiguous than #english, #england, #american and #language
(2) Multiple tags for the same content leads to a situation where marvelous content languishes in obscurity.
One example: #introduceyourself does not exist alone: uninformed users post their introductions in other places such as: #introducemyself, #introduction, #introduce (and others i may not have thought of). They will probably not be seen by as many people as possible.
Because even native speakers can disagree about tags, some simple guidelines/suggestions would be helpful:
(A) be specific
(B) shorter is usually better
(C) avoid technical jargon/abbreviations
#learnenglish is better than #english (A), #improveyourenglish (A, B), #howtolearnenglish (B) #learningenlish (B), #englishas a foreignlanguage (C), #englishas a secondlanguage (C), #EFL (C)
(3) People whose content gets less attention (or is completely ignored) because they inadvertently used obscure/unclear tags wind up leaving the Steemit platform. Why not help them out?
A simple list of suggestions and examples, with an explanation like mine (could be improved: this is just off the top of my head) could alleviate these problems and help make Steemit into a bigger, more useful and more inclusive platform for all of us.
I will start using this tag on posts thatchsve to do with language learning , nice idea
I think this is an excellent idea but it seems like with something so complicated we might need a separate website dedicated to language learning/teaching. It is a shame to have so much skills and knowledge in the community but no easy way to access or manage it, which is why many people are creating groups on Discord or building their own websites. I am interested in perhaps collaborating and helping to work out how we can make this happen, since my previous attempts at a #polyglot tag also didn't quite work.