Calendar in Basque Faulty

These are excerpts from an e-mail that I have been unsuccessful to send to either RIM or BlackBerry Help Desk, as my e-mails are immediately replied to with a note to go and purchase tech support. Why should I if the problem is their software???

(I have erased relevant confidential data from this e-mail)

My name is Mikel Lataburu. I am a Basque from Donostia-San Sebastian and I have been living in Turkey for some time now.

I bought my BB Bold here in Turkey last February and ever since I have been very happy with it. I have been learning how to use it properly and the advantages are enormous. I thank RIM for that.

However, I must comment on one software fault that perhaps has gone unnoticed for RIM. If it hasn't, I'll be delighted to benefit from its fixture!

As a Basque I chose the Basque Language settings, which allow me to function in a manner that makes me feel more connected to home. That is great. Nevertheless, once I started to use the Calendar, I noticed that, perhaps due to a loss in translation, the day names and digits are not properly synchronized in all its features/views.

For example:

In Day View you will notice that the date is projected in its Basque Format (Year/Month/Day) but on the right hand side the names of the days are in their English Language Form. On top of that, and this is a mere cultural difference that makes ALL the difference, our week does not start on a Sunday, but on a Monday. On this particular view it wouldn't matter all that much, as Dec 29 2009 IS a Wednesday.



If we have a look at the Week View, you will notice that the Date Format, again, is correct. Now, let's look at the day listing. One must assume that the mistake IS IN FACT CULTURAL, an honest assumption that a mere translation would suffice: Nevertheless, it is what has caused the whole problem.

Let me translate the days of the week in Basque so I may illustrate this for you:

Astelehena (Al.): Monday/Asteartea (As.): Tuesday/Asteazkena (Az.): Wednesday/Osteguna (Og.): Thursday/Ostirala (Ost.): Friday/Larunbata (Lar.): Saturday/Igandea (Ig.): Sunday

In Week View the problem is illustrated perfectly well. Taking it for granted that the first day of the week is Sunday, the Calendar displays Dec 30 2009 in the fourth position. However, someone in Software Development must also have asked that the first day in Basque be Astelehena, without actually taking the time or effort to explain that Astelehena is in fact Monday. Therefore, with this simple confusion, we are left with December 30 2009 as "Og.", I.e. "Osteguna" which is Thursday. Only it really isn't, as December 30 2009, which is today, is Wednesday.




Let us continue.

In Month View, everything matches (Dec 30 is in fact Wednesday) perfectly well. Only for the same reason as before. The shortenings for the days of the week are in English. Just a little problem of oversight, yet unnecessary in such a prestigious and expensive smart phone which offers the option of actually utilizing a calendar in one's own language.



Lastly (there may be more issues yet I haven't really taken the time to go over this thoroughly) In Agenda View we may observe that I will hopefully be lucky enough (I did set the time to be reminded, two hours before the event) to be reminded promptly by my calendar that tomorrow Thursday at 11:30 (Ost. 2009 Abendua 30) have a medical appointment at the American Hospital here in Istanbul. But MAYBE NOT, as even though I set this appointment with the English Language settings, when I changed language settings into Basque Language, it moved the appointment to Friday (Ost.)December 31st 2009. the only problem is that December 31st is actually Thursday. The same is applicable for January 1st (2010 Urtarrilak 1). If I took it for granted that the day is (Lar.) Larunbata, I would gracefully be asking people in the street "So how are you doing this fine SATURDAY January 1st of 2010?". Fortunately I am a teacher and I am on holiday now, which would explain why I would not lose my job if I didn't appear to school on a Friday thinking it is actually Saturday. They have been known for being lenient during Daylight Savings Time if people are a couple of hours late...but a day??? I doubt it...





Also, and this is a mere linguistic observation, you will observe that January (Urtarrila) has a "-k" ending. This is correct. However it seems to be the only month that has it. Would you be so kind as to include it for the rest in your Agenda View at least? I mean, really the date today for example would be spelled Asteazkena, 2009ko abenduak 30. This means that months in Basque Language, as well as days of the week, are not capitalized unless they start a sentence.

Also, you may want to contact the Basque Language Services in the Department of Education, Universities and Research from the Basque Government

That is all for now. Thanks so much for your consideration. I look forward to being able to download a proper calendar from RIM soon.

Take care and Happy 2010,

Mikel Lataburu


I have taken the liberty of sharing this issue with them as well as with you, so that together we can guarantee a proper development of the Basque Language. Thank you so much.