I am thrilled to say that I have seen new interest in helping with translating renshuu to more languages! I'm using this post to keep all the information together in case other people are interested in helping in the future.
There are *two* parts to translating renshuu
1. Dictionary information
The majority of renshuu's definitions for vocabulary and kanji come from something called the JMDict/EDICT project (which is the basis of I'd say most English-centric Japanese materials out there). While it started with English, it merged/works together with several other projects, and offers definitions for Japanese words/kanji for the following languages:
German, Russian, Hungarian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, French, Slovenian.
Even among these, there is a huge variation in content levels. German has over 110,000 definitions, while French, for example, has 15,000.
I feel that translating words/kanji for languages *other* than these is not feasible due to the amount required.
If you are interested in helping crowdsource definitions for these languages, check out the Translation Center (under Community)
In other words, for languages other than these, I believe it would be hard to add that language unless I can find a dictionary dataset for that language and Japanese. It would have to be legally free in that, like EDICT, the creators have given permission for using it in other (commercial) projects.
2. Renshuu's interface
This is relatively easier, but still a rather large task. If you go into Settings > Visuals, you can see that renshuu is available in English, German, and mostly Japanese. Although the system is pretty rough and needs cleaning up, it is already ready to allow for other languages to be added.
The main thing is that renshuu is BIG. Although some are no longer used and need to be cleaned up, there are approximately 4400 "strings" that need to be translated to consider a translation complete.
What's a "string"? It can be a single word (like the word "Learn" in the menu), a phrase ("Start a new topic"), or a sentence(s) ("Welcome to renshuu! Let's set up your learning profile")
Now, anyone interested in helping with an interface translation can work on it piecemeal - the way it works is that if the chosen language is available it will show up, but otherwise, English will appear. However, I would not consider make the option available for other users to choose that language unless at least 50% of the translation is finished.
If you are interested in helping, please do not reply to this post - rather, send me a private message. Any questions regarding the translation process can be put here, though!
