# Language in terminology service

**Category:** [Implementation](https://discourse.openehr.org/c/implem/39)
**Created:** 2020-10-22 18:32 UTC
**Views:** 716
**Replies:** 4
**URL:** https://discourse.openehr.org/t/language-in-terminology-service/1047

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## Post #1 by @vjoba

Hello,
I want to understand [TERMINOLOGY_SERVICE](https://specifications.openehr.org/releases/RM/latest/support.html#_terminology_service_class) so I can correctly implement it.

From my understanding terminology service does not care about language. 
So **CODE_SET_ACCESS** should not care about the language too. In that case how should be implemented **has_lang** method? Does it only indicate translation availability in the database?

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## Post #2 by @yampeku

As I understand this, these are functions. Specification only provides what they should return, not the actual implementation (which depends completely on the use case/terminologies used)

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## Post #3 by @vjoba

Thank you, but I asked what should this function return. What mean `True if code set knows about 'a_lang' .` It means that **has_lang** should return true is has translations? Or what should it do? I don't understand the purpose of this function.

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## Post #4 by @yampeku

Should be true if your code set has descriptions in that language. For example, if my Snomed implementation has synonyms in English and Spanish then it would be true if you ask for either 'English' or 'Spanish', false for every other language. Could be different for other code sets, that could be available in other language/s.

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## Post #5 by @vjoba

Thank you very much

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**Canonical:** https://discourse.openehr.org/t/language-in-terminology-service/1047
**Original content:** https://discourse.openehr.org/t/language-in-terminology-service/1047