Categories: Languages & Cultures

Awesome L10n community: Khmer

Another post in our Awesome L10n Communities series. This week we’ll introduce you to the new L10n Khmer community, led by Vannak Eng.

 

Date founded: Right after the Barcamp Phnom Penh 2011 on 22-23 Dec, 2011.
Number of members: 6
Team owner: Vannak Eng
Active projects: We currently have 5 active projects Firefox, Thunderbird, Calendar, Add-on, and Seamonkey.
Noteworthy milestones:  As soon as we have a Khmer Firefox release we’ll train the staff of the [Cambodian] Ministry of Education on using it and possibly have it included in the curriculum for upper-secondary school.


How did the community get started?

 In 2006 I was assigned to work on localizing Firefox into Mekhala alone within the KhmerOS project. Working independently became more and more difficult. Then some guys from Mozilla (Dietrich and Arky) recommended that I work with them to localize for Mozilla, so I decided to start the community in 2011.


What are some unique linguistic & cultural challenges your community faces?

Linguistically speaking, we do have some problems with technical terms. Culturally speaking, many people are more used to using software in English than in Khmer. Because of that they tend to say that our translation sounds clumsy and causes confusion with using the software.


How do you find new contributors for your community?

 I find new contributors through the meetups, open-source events, our facebook page, the mailing list, and google group.


If there was one thing your community would point to as the community’s greatest achievement, what would that be?

We finished translating Firefox and Thunderbird on aurora at 100% in only 2 months! Not only that, but our localizations of Firefox and Thunderbird will be included in the student curriculum for upper-secondary school. We’ll also have the opportunity to train the [Cambodian] Ministry of Education on how to use both applications.


At a Mozilla event, what’s the best way to pick your community out of the crowd?

The best way is to call our community name, “Mozilla Khmer” 🙂


If you had one piece of advice for new L10n communities, what would it be?

Commitment is very important when performing as a volunteer because we are not financially compensated but give more.   😀
Excellent work! A big thanks to Vannak for his time. Best of luck in the future to the Khmer team!

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