Do you want to conduct a multilingual survey? In Survey, you can activate the ‘Multilanguage’ functionality as an add-on package of the license. With this feature, you can offer the survey in multiple languages and analyse all responses in the same data file. You can allow respondents to choose their preferred language or send invitations in multiple languages.
How does Multilingualism work?
To use the functionality, go through the following steps:
- Create research
- Add translation
- Adjust translation
- Optional: Set layouts
- Invite participants
- Optional: multilingual emails
- Analyze multilingual research data
Add translation
1. Go to ‘Multilanguage’ in the menu. Click the ‘Download’ button next to ‘Export texts’. You will download a CSV file containing the original survey texts.
2. Enter the translation in the column next to the source language. On the first row, enter the column name and fill in the desired language code. Read more about the possible language codes. Example:
In this example, English is the source language and Dutch is the translation. If a field in the source language is empty, you do not need to add a translation. In the example, this applies to ‘survey-closedsurveytext’ in row 4.
3. After translating, delete the column that contains the source language. Save the translation as a CSV UTF-8 file. An example of how the file looks now:
You may also add multiple translations. An example:
4. Go to ‘Multilanguage’ in the menu and upload the CSV file. Follow the import process and select the correct language for each column.
5. If the import was successful, you will see an overview of your imported languages on the left side of the screen.
Adjust translations
Do you want to correct a spelling mistake in a translation? Go to 'Survey' in the menu and "Multilanguage". click on click behind the code to edit the translation. The adjustments in the translations are saved automatically.
Set layouts
In the menu, go to 'Survey' and 'Multilanguage'. click on click behind the code to edit the translation. Under the 'Current' field language' you can select the desired layout under 'Current layout'. That's how you can display the desired house style per country.
Inviting participants
You can invite participants in several ways. This depends on the access settings of the survey. You can assign a language to a participant or allow switching between languages by enabling the language switcher. To do this, go to ‘Survey’ and ‘Multilanguage’ and select ‘Show language switcher in questionnaire’. When enabled, participants will see a button allowing them to switch languages from the start page.
- Participants known and language known
You can invite participants via email. Add a column to the data-enrichment file with the participant’s language code. Read more about adding data enrichment. Each participant must have a language code; otherwise they will not be contacted. Example file:
During import, ensure that you select the ‘Language column’:
Based on this column, you can send emails in multiple languages. Create an email and select the appropriate language:
Read more about email management.
You can only send emails in multiple languages after enabling Multilanguage functionality. Follow the steps under Add translation first.
If you want to invite participants via a general survey link, append &culture=[language code] to the URL. For example:q.examplelink.com/survey?priority=true&culture=EN
- Participants known and language unknown
If you do not import a language column, participants will enter the survey in the source language. You can resolve this by including both language versions in the email.
Tip: If you include Dutch and English text in your email, add &culture=EN behind the English link so respondents go directly to the English version.
- Participants unknown
If inviting participants via social media or an open link, enable the language switcher under ‘Survey’ → ‘Multilanguage’. Respondents can then select their language on the start page.
Multilingual emails
As the access setting of the survey on 'Only email addresses from list' or 'Participant enters email address you can send invitations by email. Follow the email management steps. To edit multilingual e-mails, choose in the new e-mail message at the field 'Language' the desired language. You can then send multilingual test emails per language send. The sender name can also be set separately for each message. The disclaimer with the unsubscribe link is automatically inserted in the correct language.
Analyzing data multilingual research
The data of all language versions can be found in one and the same result file. To do this, go to 'Download Center' in the menu and download the result file. The result file contains an extra column called 'Language'. Here you can see in which language the respondent completed the survey.