So I’ve always been a little interested in artificial languages. I never really took to the natural ones I learned in school (first French and then Latin). I learned the grammar well enough, but the vocabulary left me as soon as I finished a test.

So, I started playing with the artificial language Esperanto and then Ido. I liked Ido more, as I explained at the time, because a few of its reforms were important to me (easier to type and less sexist).

Artificial languages please my engineering side and learning a second language at all eases my guilt at being a one-language Westerner.

But I never did much with it. Recently however, I’ve been looking for a non-code way of contributing to the GNOME project. My programming day job leaves me little enthusiasm for after-hours coding, but if I could use a different part of my brain, I’d be content.

And what better way to learn Ido than by translating? It’s such a common exercise when learning a language, but typically feels a little useless. Yet translating GNOME would be arguably productive, and immersing myself in an Ido desktop environment would help me keep with it.

So I applied to be the official Ido translation team (with Dave). Being a translation coordinator (especially for such a niche language as Ido) is just about my volunteer speed. Translating is a relaxing Progress Quest for my free time too.

So, the team website is up and the first translation has already gone in (which translated most of gtk+, providing common desktop-wide strings like OK and Cancel, or rather Aceptez and Abrogez).