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The Big Jiki & Exercism Translatathon

Over the weekend of July 31st - August 2nd, we're translating Jiki and Exercism into as many languages as we can, together. Here's how it works and how you can help.

17th Jul 2026
Jeremy WalkerWritten by Jeremy Walker
5 minute read

TL;DR

We're translating Jiki and Exercism into as many languages as we can, over the weekend of Friday July 31st - Sunday August 2nd. Want to help? Join the kickoff live stream at 1pm UTC on the Friday, or get stuck in on Discord and the forum any time over the weekend. Everyone who contributes gets an exclusive one-off Translatathon badge on both Jiki and Exercism!

Why we're doing this

More than ever, I believe that coding and building skills open up huge opportunities. We want to help as many people as possible get those skills, and being able to learn in your own language makes a huge difference.

Most people in the world don't speak English, but most coding resources are only in English. So we're translating the whole of Jiki - the UI, the videos, the exercises, even the error messages you get from the programming language itself.

And it's not just Jiki. Exercism is also ready to be translated, using the same process and the same glossaries, so we'll be working on both platforms at the same time.

What's happening

The Translatathon is like a hackathon, but with less hacking and more translating. It runs across a long weekend:

  • Friday July 31st, 1pm UTC: Kickoff live stream on YouTube. I'll explain how everything works, show you the process in action, and get everyone started.
  • Saturday and Sunday: We hack translate. We'll base ourselves on Discord, where I'll have a livestream running, and you can work with other speakers of your language in real time. We'll keep a proper record of decisions on the forum.
  • Sunday August 2nd, 4pm UTC: Closing stream, where we'll look at which languages are ready to launch.

For each language, we're hoping to have at least three native speakers, at least one of whom also speaks English to a high level. There are already lots of languages underway on the forum, so have a look and see if yours is there.

How does this work, practically?

We're using LLMs (a mixture of them) to translate the platforms, but using strict guides and glossaries that we'll create. We're running a loop, where we translate, get human feedback, update the systems, and go again. Until we're happy.

This is how it'll work:

  1. We agree a glossary. These are the technical terms we'll use consistently everywhere - what do we call a "function" or a "variable" in your language? This is where we'll start on the Friday.
  2. I post sample translations. A blog post, a concept page, some video subtitles, generated using your glossary.
  3. You tell us what's wrong. This word sounds weird. Nobody actually says it that way. This sentence is too formal. You don't need to explain why - "this just sounds off" is really useful feedback.
  4. The AI learns from your corrections, and I post a fresh sample.
  5. We repeat until everything reads naturally.

Once a language gets to that point, I can bulk translate the whole of Jiki into it: every lesson, every exercise, every error message, and subtitles for every video. That's the goal for each language by Sunday evening.

If you watched Episode 1 of Learn to Build, you saw a bit of this in action when I bootstrapped European Portuguese live on stream.

What if my language isn't listed yet?

Post in the forum and we'll bootstrap it - a forum section for your language and a starting glossary to discuss. And if you know other native speakers who'd help out, get them to post too. The more people working on a language, the better it'll be.

Do I need to be technical?

No! If you can read something in your language and tell us when it sounds weird, that's exactly what we need. Some coding experience helps with the technical terms, but it's not required.

Get involved

So, to get involved:

  1. Join the kickoff stream at 1pm UTC on Friday July 31st.
  2. Jump into the #translation channel on Discord. That's where we'll all be working over the weekend, and the best place to discuss terms with other speakers of your language.
  3. Post the decisions on the forum. The forum is what the AI actually learns from, so anything you agree on Discord needs to end up there.

Everyone who contributes will get an exclusive one-off Translatathon badge on both Jiki and Exercism as a thank you.

What's next

After the weekend, languages will launch as soon as they're ready. Then we'll start on the next phase: audio and video dubbing. We're using ElevenLabs for the audio, plus some custom video dubbing that changes my mouth, so it looks like I'm actually speaking your language.

Thank you

I've wanted to do this for a long time, and it's finally possible. Thank you to everyone who's already started working on their language on the forum - I can't wait to see how many languages we can launch together.

See you on Friday July 31st at 1pm UTC 🌍

Thanks for reading 🙂