Dear Dr. Ayumu Ota, Shibusawa Memorial Museum, Tokyo, Japan, The Bagatti Valsecchi Museum in Milan, Italy, has a bi-lingual web site (Italian, English) in which the two sites are mirror-images (that is, what is found in one, is found in the other, with occasional rare exceptions of abbreviated text for local events less likely to be of interest to those abroad). Originally, the home page of the museum had the principal menu in Italian on the left, the same menu--in English--on the right, and shared information in the center. Once a visitor chose from a language-specific menu item, the rest of the site was in that specified language. We received many positive comments about this format. As the offerings of the museum were enriched, this home page became too inflexible, so we had to go to a language choice initial page, as currently in use. (We do not use the Italian home page as the first page, with the option of clicking on a seemingly insignificant link to the English version, as this approach seems psychologically, to us, anyway, to minimize the importance of our foreign museum and site visitors, when this certainly is not the case.) On the initial page for choosing the language (http://www.museobagattivalsecchi.org or http://www.bagattivalsecchi.house.museum), in addition to the principal choices of Italian and English for the two full versions of the web site, some of you already may be able to see the three small flags at the bottom of the page, one for Japanese, one for German and one for French. (One in Spanish is being produced; others are planned.) These links do not lead to a full version of the web site in these languages, as this would be an impossible task for us. However, we do want to reach out to our non-Italian and non-English speaking visitors with at least a basic paragraph about the museum and with practical information, such as the address, how to get there, the hours, etc. (Note: if you are not able to see these little flags, wait a week, and try again, if you are interested; the page temporarily may be undergoing work when you check.) As for the actual visit to the museum, for those who wish to see the museum on their own, there are information cards in each room in all of the principal European languages AND Japanese. The texts were written by the curatorial staff, and translated by trusted translators. For those who wish to see the museum with a guide, guided tours are avaialable, but must be reserved in advance. Sometimes the staff of the museum (either capable in other languages, or--like myself--a native speaker) handles the tours. If, for some reason, we are not able to handle the tour, then--according to Italian law--we are required to engage only tour guides, who have passed an official exam for general tour guide content and foreign language skills. Of these guides with their official licenses, we hand pick those we consider able guides and good foreign language speakers, and we make sure that they are sufficiently informed about our specific museum and visitors' needs to represent the museum, as best as possible, even if they are not of the museum, itself. I hope this has answered your question not just about what is being offered by our museum, but also our thinking behind our choices. I do hope that you and your Japanese colleagues and friends will visit us the next time that you are in Milan. Best regards, Star Meyer, Ph.D. home: [log in to unmask] work: [log in to unmask] Bagatti Valsecchi Museum - Milan, Italy ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).