Most of the people I hope will use Sojago think, negotiate, and work in French.
For a long time, almost everything I wrote about the product was in English. I was describing problems that happen in French-speaking offices, using a language many of the people concerned would not choose to read.
That did not make much sense.
Translation can still create distance
A sentence can be correct in French and still sound borrowed. The grammar is right, but the rhythm, examples, and choice of words belong to the English version.
Product language has the same problem.
A property manager should not have to translate our labels back into the words used in the agency. The best term is not always the closest equivalent of an English one. It is the term that makes the next action obvious.
Writing in both languages forces me to notice that difference.
Two versions, written for their readers
Every article and project on this site has an English and a French version. They share the same facts, ideas, and level of honesty. They do not have to share the same sentence structure.
The English version should sound natural in English. The French version should read as if it was written in French from the beginning.
That takes more time than running a translation and correcting a few words. It is still worth doing. Language is part of how a product earns trust, and the writing around the product should follow the same standard.