# D006 - i18n Seven Languages and RTL

> D006 - i18n Seven Languages and RTL: a note from the Obsidian vault behind https://saifsiddiqui.in.

Canonical URL: https://saifsiddiqui.in/hi-latn/brain/d006-i18n-seven-languages-and-rtl/ (this is its markdown representation; the same URL serves HTML to browsers)
Other languages: en: https://saifsiddiqui.in/brain/d006-i18n-seven-languages-and-rtl/ · hi: https://saifsiddiqui.in/hi/brain/d006-i18n-seven-languages-and-rtl/ · kn: https://saifsiddiqui.in/kn/brain/d006-i18n-seven-languages-and-rtl/ · ur: https://saifsiddiqui.in/ur/brain/d006-i18n-seven-languages-and-rtl/ · te: https://saifsiddiqui.in/te/brain/d006-i18n-seven-languages-and-rtl/ · ar: https://saifsiddiqui.in/ar/brain/d006-i18n-seven-languages-and-rtl/

**Type:** decision  
**Status:** accepted  
**Created:** 2026-07-17  
**Tags:** decision, i18n, rtl

## D006: i18n: seven languages + RTL

**Context:** Saif wants the site in English, Hindi, Kannada (Bangalore), Urdu, Telugu, Arabic, and Hinglish. Urdu + Arabic are RTL; four are non-Latin scripts.

**Decision:** Build full i18n for all 7 via [Astro i18n](/brain/d002-tech-stack/), per-locale routes, `hreflang`, `dir` switching, per-locale Noto fonts. Implementation in [Internationalization](/brain/internationalization/). Translation mechanism in [D007 - Build-time AI Translation](/brain/d007-build-time-ai-translation/).

**Why:** For this audience (recruiters/clients read English) multi-language is a **capability demonstration**, which is legitimate under [D001 - Site as Proof Principle](/brain/d001-site-as-proof-principle/), i18n + RTL is genuinely hard and signals senior engineering.

**Risk / trade-off (important):** quality is binary, fluent Urdu/Kannada impresses; sloppy machine output *hurts* the signal. Mitigation: English is canonical; each locale ships live only after a review pass. Launch scope + reviewers open ([Open Questions](/brain/open-questions/) #4). RTL handled via logical CSS ([Design System](/brain/design-system/)).

## Yahan se linked

- [D007 - Build-time AI Translation](/hi-latn/brain/d007-build-time-ai-translation/)
- [D015 - Defer Content Translation](/hi-latn/brain/d015-defer-content-translation/)
- [Internationalization](/hi-latn/brain/internationalization/)
- [Open Questions](/hi-latn/brain/open-questions/)
- [Portfolio Brain](/hi-latn/brain/portfolio-brain/)
- [Roadmap](/hi-latn/brain/roadmap/)

Saare notes: [/hi-latn/brain/](/hi-latn/brain/)

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Mohd Saif, Product Engineer. I build solutions, not dead software.
Email: saifmd238@gmail.com · GitHub: https://github.com/Saif-09 · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohd-saif-134076141/ · Résumé (PDF): https://saifsiddiqui.in/resume

More for agents:
- [/llms.txt](/llms.txt): short summary of this site
- [/llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt): the complete text of every page in one fetch
- [/agents.md](/agents.md): when to use this site, and how to query it
- [/sitemap-index.xml](/sitemap-index.xml): every URL, in seven languages