Number Issues

I've been having a go at the Japanese LibraryThing page and, while most of what's there can be translated, there is an issue with the numbering system. In English, LibraryThing has 21 million books. On the translation page, the translation of the 21 is separate to the translation of million. However, in Japanese, 1 million is literally written as 100 10000s or 百万. Having 21 million translate as 二十一百万 makes no sense. It should read 2100 10000s or 二千一百万.

I don't know if this difference in the number breakdowns occurs in many other languages, but seeing as Japanese does not have a single term for the number 1 million, and counts in sets of ten thousand rather than one million, some way of altering the entire number "21 million" together is necessary. This problem will pop up every time there is an instance of a number greater than ten thousand.

...I don't read Japanese, but it looks like a temporary workaround could be achieved by translating "21" as "二千一" and "million" as "百万" (even if they actually mean "2100" and "10000"). (Later the "二千一" would have to be updated to "二千二", and so on, but that seems doable too).

But I agree that a more comprehensive solution for number issues will be needed at some point. And dates too -- see the message posted by a Korean translator on the subject.

Chinese has the same issue. Korean might as well.

>2 AnnaOok:
That only works if we are know that 21 will always be part of 21 million and never just 21.

Indian languages don't use million. They have words for thousand, 100 thou., 10000 thou, 1000000 thou and so on -- some of these terms are used in English as well in India! So "21 million" would translate as "210 (word for 100 thou)". See for instance Indian Numbering System