Language selection for a multi-country survey

Hello Everyone,

I am developing a survey form that will be deployed in multiple countries. So, I am including multiple languages in XLS form.

Is there a way to make language selection automatic, say, based on the selection of the country? I would like this restriction to be able to know where the data was collected.

Thanks,

Hello @ssp,
Workaround: You might clone your form for specific country versions. You might just rename the XLSForm columns to a non-valid name like **XX_*label: …
Disadvantages: You will get separated datasets and be careful to synchronize any form changes to all clones.

1 Like

Dear @wroos Thank you for you message. Do you mean that I create a first form and then clone it? Once the cloned form is available, download the XLSF and add a new language?

Can you please explain more? I am quite new to KoBo and have tried to build my first form In two languages. I am concerned about how data from multiple forms will be merged to create a single multi-country data for analysis.

No, as far as I know. But @Kal_Lam might explain more. Also, how the Browser or Collect configuration language influences the default.

You can only define one of your form languages as default_language in the settings.

Why not leave it to the user to select her/his language?? You can get the country by a variable/question in your survey.

You probably know the article of the Help Center Adding Another Language to your XLSForm — KoboToolbox documentation

If you really need to separate, you could use one design form with multiple languages and than, for each country version (clone) deactivate the non-relevant language columns by changing the column names to an invalid name, e.g. by a prefix: XX_label;:English (en).
Later, exported datasets (with same structure!) can just be combined e.g. in Excel.

Depending on your analysis demands, it might be preferable or not to have separate country datasets and form clones, e.g. for reports and user management.

Hint: A user can always change the language during entering the data in the same form with multiple languages.

1 Like

Thank you @wroos. So finally I have created a single form with all languages.

1 Like