Greeter Volunteer Language option

It occured to me that many new members to the site may have a language difficulty when communicating with their volunteer "greeter". I know I get games with newbies who do not communicate at all. We usually are expecting a new member to have some questions. So I then wonder if they just do not understand my language, or if they do not understand how to send messages back and forth within the game. One of the first things I do is explain how to send messages with their move.

If a new member can only communicate in italian, it would be good to offer them an option to have a greeter game with someone who can communicate in that language. I know once the 'greeter' game is over they're on their own, but even then they will know at least one person who they can still communicate with at any time if they have more questions.

It would require each greeter to update their 'greeter settings' to include whatever languages they are comfortable with, and would require modifications to the program to be able to find a match for a specific language request, but it's something to consider at any rate.

So, it's just an idea, and I thought it was worth mentioning in this forum.

Indeed I encounter a lot of Welcome games where my opponent is not communicating.
If they choose a flag, I at least have a chance to see if language could be the problem.
But listing the languages of the greeters and letting people choose is a great idea!

Originally posted by @ponderable
Indeed I encounter a lot of Welcome games where my opponent is not communicating.
If they choose a flag, I at least have a chance to see if language could be the problem.
But listing the languages of the greeters and letting people choose is a great idea!

I think so too. I only understand english, but I know many of our members are multilingual.

Another problem is when a new member gets a greeter game and their opponent doesn't happen to be online at the time, they abandon the game and don't come back. Maybe there should be a stronger effort up front to remind them that this is a correspondence site and their opponents aren't always online. They need to be patient and give it some time and check back on occasion.