A few months ago, I could be seen trekking across the hilly, rugged terrain of my village in Bajhang – in an arduous one-hour journey to the ward office. I was here to make English translated copies of my vital documents, but as fate would have it, I ended up staying at the ward office for the rest of the day, helping officials use Microsoft word to format and print several other documents as well. By the time I was on my back home, it was evening. I did not mind though, and the officials were grateful for having a huge load come off their shoulders: using the computer.

The events of the day did make me wonder: What sets back many people in Nepal from using technology proficiently? In an age where digital accessibility is valued by many companies and governments, most software is made to be easily understood and navigated by the general population. But from my own personal observation, in my home for example, relatives and family members often have me do simple things for them like creating new Gmail accounts, downloading apps, registering online forms and so on. Technology to them is not as comprehensible as it is to me, who has been exposed to smartphones ever since childhood. But more significant than that, I realised, is the English language barrier that is preventing them from gaining confidence in using these applications.

Most computer systems currently used by the Nepali people have an English language interface. Most messages, captions, warnings, headings and instructions on our computer or mobile phone screens are displayed in English. The internet is filled to the brim with English content, from blogs, health websites and online Wikipedia to international news portals and shopping platforms. Our social media is inundated with English posts, messages and notifications. Even websites of Nepali non-profits, youth organisations, businesses and personal portfolios are written down in English. Aside from governmental websites, Nepali news portals, occasional Nepali tweets and some amount of Nepali video content, our local language is hard to come by in the digital world. The situation is even more observable in graphical user interfaces of operating systems and offline computer applications.

Consequently, people not comfortable with the English language have a hard time navigating the digital world. Learning to use software applications where everything is labeled in an unfamiliar language becomes daunting. Lack of tech support services in the local language intensifies this issue. For instance, there exists a vast array of resources such as how-to-articles and videos to help customers use software and digital products on the internet. But since most of this is communicated in English, non-English speakers face limited and subpar Nepali alternatives compared to the abundance and quality of resources available otherwise.

Newer technologies that could potentially benefit many fall short of delivering their potential because of the language barrier. Good examples are AI chatbots like Open AI's Chat GPT, Google's Gemini or Microsoft's Bard. They are quite helpful so long as you can chat with them in English.

Every year, when the season is just right, you can see the hustle and bustle in unofficial electronic DV form filling stations, where people hankering after the enticing chance of going to the US come to submit the forms for a few hundred rupees. Perhaps, an even more perennial flurry of activity happens at unofficial passport form filling stations, right outside the building of the Department of Passports.

While it's reasonable for those without access to a computer to utilise these facilities, filling an online form is hardly a technical task. Still many prefer these services over filling online forms themselves.

This could be because of lack of confidence in using digital applications and technology. Subsequently, the language barrier has a direct role in magnifying this lack in confidence.

This is because understanding how to use computers and software becomes more intuitive when you can read the text on the screen. Let's illustrate this with a simple hypothetical scenario. Imagine using Microsoft Word and you encounter the 'Find' and 'Replace' options on the toolbar. You might not immediately understand their functions. However, if you understand the meanings of the words, you could intuitively guess that the 'Find' option allows you to locate any word or phrase in the document, and perhaps the 'Replace' option enables you to substitute those words with others. This intuition is not accessible to individuals who are unfamiliar with the English language.

One straightforward answer to solving the language barrier is translation. However, translation comes with its own range of difficulties. It is tricky to provide quality translation for the vast amount of content present in the digital world. Furthermore, unlike English, Nepali did not evolve to be well integrated with technological interfaces and often, there exist no good alternatives in Nepali to technological and other jargons. It also takes extra effort from all entities that work in the digital domain to make their website and content available in Nepali as well. However, successful integration of our own language in the digital world is possible and beneficial, so relevant organisations and the government should allocate time, money and people to work on this end.

While an internet completely translated in Nepali may appear appealing, individually, the most immediate step one can take is to try to understand computer systems intuitively by learning the rudimentary skills of English necessary to navigate the digital world. While technological interfaces use English, the language used is often very simple, and running that extra mile will make us more comfortable with computers, making us more productive in our work.