We would like to ask you to think carefully when you decide to list your items in French or German.

Of course everyone would like to make the most of the three language interfaces and market their work as much as possible on DaWanda.

Please take into consideration however, when you create a listing for the French website for example, if perhaps French is not one of your second languages, it is not very fair to submit your English listing on the French interface - for several reasons.

The French catalogue is then flooded with incomplete, or incomprehensible items. This is a problem that is developing so we would like to ask you to please think carefully about your listings.

If you tick the box and fill in the information to create a French or German listing, please do so only if you have a good understanding of the language, good enough that you haven't used an online translator to do most of the work and that you will actually be able to deal with a French or German customer if you receive an order from a mademoiselle or a fraulein!

You should think about the sales that you would get - and the likelihood of a problem arising due to the language barrier. It's a fantastic tool to be able to reach out to people from different countries, but you have to think about the consequences and the problems that result in listing your item in a language that you do not speak or understand.

Don't forget that by listing on the English interface you are also presenting your work to the whole DaWanda platform. If there is somebody from the French or German side of DaWanda who is really interested in checking out the listings from the English interface, they will find you!

Listing on each language interface should only be done if you have a very good standard in the language.

I'm glad you said that. I was thinking of using an online translator not thinking of the pitfalls of that. also it was too much work to try to do it. I'll keep it simple for everybody.

Thanks,
Numinosity

Guilty as charged!
Thanks for the gentle spanking, Elizabeth. You're absolutely right - it would be frustrating to have to weed through listings that were not in your language or incomprehensible.
I did a reverse translation of one of my listings to see what the listing actually read and it was BIZARRE (they translated "strip mall" to "Sodium Universe"), so those online translation tools leave much to be desired.
I realize that in my attempt to appeal to the other language sites, I'm probably doing the opposite and scaring them away with my contorted messages.
I will add "Learn German & French" on my to-do list. In the meantime, I think I'll stick with English.

Er... how to I edit to remove my listings from the French and German sites?

I understand this problem, but maybe it could be more clear to see that Dawanda have 3 websites. The 3 flags are so small! It took me some time to undrestand all this. and maybe I'm not alone?
At first I thought all 3 sites contained the same items, and that It was the Information about how to shop and so on that was in 3 languages.
So please, more information on the main page that you can find more products if you look throu all 3 webpages.

ooh yes, thanks elizabeth. even though i have learned french i am guilty of just chucking my listing in a translator and not worrying... i will actually go through and edit.

Yup... I have the same problem.. I do not know how to edit my listing that I have translated to make the french and german go away. hummmm
When I had just english I had very few views...hope that I still get a lot of veiws once I go back to just English.

Yes I would like to know how to make my German listing go away too. I just tried to do it then but couldn't...

Maybe you just need to delete everything from those fields and leave them empty.

Yeah I tried that - the only thing that stayed deleted was the tags, the item description and the item is still there.

What about disactivating the items and recreating a listing, using the original one as template, but with only the English section this time?
That should work, and it would take less time than it sounds, I think...
(Disactivated listings appear at the bottom of the list of templates)

actualy I didn't even think of posting in the French or German parts of DaWanda as long as I'm selling in English (patterns) ..... but I should like to have a Scandinavian posibility!
;)))
you know, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian people talk their own languages, but we do understand each other all the same!
....

cheers from
knittingmette - "a Dane in Italy"!!!
so you could also add the Italian section for me!!!!

it would be a real EU-DaWanda!!!!

I have tried and tried aswell. Also disactivating the items and recreating a listing, but no luck. My items still turns up on the german and french site.

Oh lala ! Ooops ! Wie schade
LOL

I do have to say I am disappointed to read this. My goal in joining Dawanda was to reach the European community. Yes I am sure there is a small percentage of people who come and look at the English section but it is very small. My views increased 80% by listing on the French and German side. I will honor this request and not post there anymore but I think once the decision is made to charge a fee for listing I will no longer post my items on this site as the exposure at this point for the English site is just not high enough to justify the expense. I was very excited to be able to reach the European market. Perhaps in time the English portion will grow enough to make it worthwhile.

I also have to say I wish this was made clear before I joined. It may have altered my decision. At least I would have gone into it with my eyes open and not with false expectations.

I agree totally with Silver River. I list in French because I have a reasonable command of the language and have certainly noticed an increase in interest since I started listing in French as well as English. I've had my shop here since November and haven't even had as much as an enquiry, never mind a sale. While the site is free it doesn't matter so much, but as soon as we have to pay for listing, I don't think listing here will be a viable option. I konw my French isn't perfect, but I feel it's worth my while at least at the moment to list in French because a lot of German users seem to understand French as well. British people just don't seem to know this site even exists!

Alphabettispaghetti - we are not asking you to remove your listings if you have a good command of the language, it's only those listings which have been created using online translators for example, by those without even a basic standard of the language.

It's not that you have to be perfect, but there are 3 if's:

a) if you didn't just enter English text for the German/French description,
b) if you are at least able to work on your alternate language listings by yourself
C) if you are capable of looking after your customers and communicating with them in their respective language

then you are welcome to keep your alternate language listings!

After a lot of work and effort to try and do my best French and German translations, so I can list on all sites, I have worked out something that seems to be working quite well for me.
I have a little knowledge of French and German, but not enough to directly translate my whole English description of my items. So I have begun using quite simple translations in German and French. I have listed all the important details such as height, length etc, and what the item is: hat, hut, Chapeau.
So far, when I have had communication from German and French customers we have both been able to understand each other quite easily.
I hope what I'm doing is okay?? :-)

And like others in this thread have mentioned, my views (and sales) increased greatly since listing in French and German, so I hope I can still keep doing this.

Thanks Elizabeth. I agree with trying to keep it simple! You don't necessarily have to translate what you've written in English, just work with what you know in the foreign language. I had a really nice message the other day from a German user but written in French. They must have understood my French and realised I knew enough to understand the message... which I did!! That was really encouraging. I won't list in German because I don't understand enough to deal with any enquiries.