Trying to add another language to my local site

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

• 
  Sam Mah: As far as I know, Google doesn`t give you a penalty on duplicate content. Stop worry this. You need to add the proper hreflang tag so that Google can direct Chinese people to the Chinese page, for example.
• 
  Carmen Chan: Sam Mah thanks a bunch!
• 
  Ammon Johns: There is no such thing as a duplicate content penalty. There has NEVER been any such thing as a duplicate content penalty. But there have been a lot of people who present false information and speculation in blogs to get clicks and links, making up nonsense penalties or presenting hare-brained theories. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxCAVmXfVyI
• 
  Carmen Chan: Ammon Johns thanks for confirmation, am glad my fears are unfounded 😃 will watch, thanks for sharing!
• 
  Carmen Chan: Ammon Johns btw, so it`s okay to have 2 articles with same keyword then? One for each language?
• 
  Ammon Johns: Carmen Chan absolutely. The main reason that a duplicate content penalty is a nonsense is that it would serve no purpose or need. Having duplicate content is its own penalty, since this increases the number of pages that one`s link `juice` is spread between (dilution) while actual duplicates will not earn extra links.
  
  In actuality though, if the pages are in different languages they are not actual duplicates at all. Each version might ideally gain its own links, in the respective language. Search engines index unique URLs, and the difference in language is a difference in function and utility - they serve completely different audiences - one page for an audience that seeks information in one language, the other for those who seek information in another, usually because the person needed that language and is not bi-lingual, or at least, not fluently enough for the information they need.
• 
  Carmen Chan: Ammon Johns thanks for the helpful explanation. This makes so much sense and gave me a better picture :)