switching languages on a website

i'm just curious as to the different ways to have multiple languages on a website.
basically, i'd like a new site to have 2 different languages and the only way i know how to do it would be....

have the two flags on the opening page
user chooses their flag or language
then THAT website is called up.

meaning that i'd have to have a different page for each language.
english...
www.sitename.com/en/mainpage.html
and
swedish...
www.sitename.com/sw/mainpage.html

but that seems like a bit of pain or...?



is there another way to do it so that ALL text in the site is linked to a language file? so if the user chooses language#1 then that file with all the appropriate tages would be used....then same for language#2 and so on.

u follow me? :thumbsup:

I guess the main idea would be to use one template with various text files for content.
Those text files would be different languages. If you have images with words on them,
that would require you to have different templates ... so your idea would be OK to use.

As far as remembering the language, you could use a selector link (or graphics) and remember
the setting by using cookies. I don't trust IP country locators ... they may get close, but that
doesn't mean the person speaks that language.

I guess it really depends on how much content and how many pages?
If you're using a CMS like WordPress or Joomla ... that would make a difference too.