Languages

The public site speaks two languages, Bengali (বাংলা) and English. Every word the script itself writes, from the menus of the member area to the buttons of the donation form, is written in both. What you write yourself is stored once for each language where that makes sense.

The main language

Admin → Settings → General → Main language decides what a visitor sees on the first visit: বাংলা (Bengali) or English. It is first chosen in the installer, and visitors can switch at any time.

Which language a visitor sees

1. A language asked for in the address: ?lang=en or ?lang=bn after any address shows that page in that language. Search engines are told about both versions of every page this way.
2. Otherwise the language the visitor chose before, kept for a year in a cookie named qc_lang.
3. Otherwise a signed-in member's own Language, set on their Profile page.
4. Otherwise the main language.

The language switch

The header shows a বাং | EN switch; in the menu on phones it reads বাংলা | English. It goes through /lang/bn or /lang/en and comes straight back to the page the visitor was on. For a signed-in member the choice is also saved with their account, so it follows them to other devices.

The switch can be hidden under Admin → Appearance → Header & menus → বাংলা / English switch. New visitors then see the main language, and members their own.

Bengali digits and dates

When a page is in Bengali, numbers are written with Bengali digits (১২৩) and dates use the Bengali month names, such as ২১ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০২৬. In English the usual digits are used. Visitors may type either kind of digit into forms such as the donation amount; the site understands both.

Some Bengali fonts draw ১, ২ and ৯ very alike. Admin → Appearance → Fonts lets the numbers have a font of their own. See Appearance.

What you write in two languages

Wherever the admin panel shows two boxes, marked (বাংলা) and (English), the visitor sees the one in their language. When that box is empty, the other is shown, so nothing is ever blank. This applies to:

• menus, home page sections and footer widgets, the copyright line and the tagline,
• courses and lessons,
• donation causes and the instructions of payment methods,
• e-mail templates,
• the surah names, meanings and introductions,
• notices for the mosque screens.

Blog posts, pages and blog categories are written once, in whatever language you choose, and every visitor sees them as written. If you want a post in both languages, write two posts.

The Quran itself is separate: which translations and pronunciations a reader sees first is set for Bengali visitors and English visitors under Admin → Settings → Quran reading, and each reader can change it. See The Quran.

The admin panel is always English

The admin panel speaks English whatever language you browse the site in, and writes numbers with ordinary digits. Only the boxes for Bengali content are labelled in Bengali. Use these fonts in the admin panel too on Admin → Appearance → Fonts makes that Bengali look as it will on the site.

The mosque screen has its own language

The prayer-times screen at /prayer-times/screen can be set to a language of its own, so the screen in the mosque stays in Bengali even if you browse the site in English. Under Admin → Settings → Prayer times → The screen in the mosque, Language offers Same as the site, বাংলা or English. A signed-in member can choose differently for their own screens on the Mosque screen page of their account. The ayah of the day on the screen follows the same choice. See Prayer times and the mosque screen.

The language of e-mails

Every e-mail template has a Bengali and an English subject and text.

• E-mails that answer something a visitor just did go out in the language they were using at that moment: the welcome e-mail, the password reset, the contact form's automatic reply and confirmation, and Donation received.
• The donation receipt, your replies to messages, and the e-mail to a member whose account you made go out in the site's main language.
• E-mails to you follow Admin → Settings → E-mail → Language of e-mails to you.

If one language of a template is empty, the other is used. See Settings.

Search engines

Each page tells search engines that it exists in both languages, at the same address with ?lang=bn and ?lang=en. You do not need to set anything for this.