[thelist] usernames and other contact info in local languages

[Bob Meetin]

This might sound like a silly question. However, I have a registration type form which is to be used internationally.  For the time being I'm using GoogleTranslate to allow the visitor to enter data in their language.  In the context of English I have some error-checking in place to keep the visitor from entering unwanted characters. The data is saved in a mysql table.

Regardless of language selected since my keyboard is not configured my entries are in English. I'm wondering what this is going to look like and how it will work in a very different foreign language. French, for instance, useds lots of accents, Russian more characters in the alphabet, Thai its own alphabet, Japanese a completely different system.

If folks attempt to register in their language will they be entering data in their language and that information gets stored in the database such that if I cruise the user list I'll see some real interesting stuff or is this an intance in which visitors are forced to sign up for accounts in the default language of English?

How do social networks like Google +, Facebook, etc handle this?

-Bob