Facebook in Shona and Ndebele!

So here I am logging into Facebook to check if there are any updates, guess what I find…?

Translate Facebook into Shona
Leesa K, thanks for using Facebook. Help us launch Facebook in Shona by translating or voting on translations.
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Imagine my excitement!
I quickly share with my workmates.And they too are excited.
But what does that mean for us Zimbabweans? Do we have much vocabulary and is it that simple for every user? Since Facebook would like us to contribute will the Zimbabweans on facebook be able to capture all the Shona Ethnic Groups?

Facebook said this:

“People use Facebook to share information and ideas in many different languages. In fact, 50% of our community speaks a language other than English and most people don’t speak each other’s languages, so we’re always thinking about ways we can help remove language as a barrier to connecting on Facebook.”

The number of Facebook Users in Zimbabwe according to Techzim estimates earlier this year, about 800k facebook accounts are active and 6.7m people are on the internet. Of course, there are factors why not everyone who has internet access is not on facebook.

Shona is a collective name of the largest ethnic group in Zimbabwe which consists of the Manyika, Zezuru, Korekore, Karanga and the Ndau among other ethnic groups and represents over 70% of the Zimbabwean population. We hope that Facebook is working on launching the other major language in Zimbabwe: SiNdebele. Heck, we hope they make even the dialect divisions available on the platform.

Here are some of the reasons why this is actually a good thing for Zimbabwe;

1. Taking Down The Language Barrier

Taking into consideration that not everyone is very good with English, communicating in ones’ first language may be very comfortable for other people. In my head I can see a post in Venda, ”Ndimatsheloni avhudi”  and that is a greeting there, How do you do 

2. Advertising Made Easy

Problem With Shona

How Is Facebook Doing This?