Three words...google translate api.
Secondly...go ask bitshares community how may of the forks they helped pay for because of new community members joining up with big promises (but no responsibility to deliver). Then ask them how many have been abandoned (after the money was transferred of course)
Is there any example of a forum where language barriers were successfully overcome with the use of Google Translate?
there is no such place that fully overcomes language barriers at all, but a forum is far better than forcing people to all segregate based on language too.
google translate and similar services are the best we have and ONE day will be perfectly (or damn near) viable. We are probably only 5-10 years away on this which actually is NOT that long. So we need to focus on this solution as opposed to creating separate segregated chains.
I agree in general. I like the way the Chinese Steem community have handled the situation, with so many bilingual posts which are actually interesting to a Western audience.
But from a user experience perspective, it is a matter of requiring changed behaviour on the part of the user, which does not tend to be successful. The other issue is momentum. 5 years down the line Steem could have great solutions for language barriers but have lost momentum vs. alts that arose to address a market demand. But on balance, I more agree with you than disagree.