Every language need a code for the letters to show. Otherwise it get's mumbled up.
For instance:
When I started on the Norwegian translation, the site only supported the English alphabet. Norwegian uses three extra letters (?, ? and ?). Whenever these letters showed up in the text, the word got messy (since the letters didn't exist).
So that a sentence like this; <<P? l?ven st?nd ein jule?l>>
would show up on the site as <<P23% l23%ven st18%nd ein jule25%l>>
Basically.. no-one would understand it.