Re: We should not force people to post in English

[Richard Gooch <rgooch@atnf.CSIRO.AU>]

Oscar Stiffelman writes:
>
> There is no reason to demand that people only post in English,
> *especially* for an international list.  The initial dominance of a
> language does not justify its further domination.  Non-English
> speakers do not have to be marginalized in the cause of
> internationalism.

The domainance *and* practicality of a language does justify it's
further domination. English is practical because it's never been too
proud to borrow words from other languages.

And let's face it, as a species we waste an awful lot of resources on
supporting multiple languages and trying to communicate when we don't
share a common langauge.

> One downside of Udo's posting in German is that his audience is
> restricted, so he may not receive an answer, but a restricted
> audience is better for Udo than no audience at all.  Recipients who
> do not speak German may be annoyed that they receive email that is
> of no consequence to them.  However, this problem of getting
> information to the right people, and only the right people, occurs
> frequently with the Internet.  We should either accept it as a fact
> of modern life or look for technological solutions.  This policy
> (dare I say political?) solution that demands all posts be in
> English only reduces our awareness of the problem-- it does not
> solve anything.

Sure it solves the problem. It encourages people to use English more,
or encourages people who don't know any English to go out and learn
it. If every time you skim past your national borders at the speed of
light on the Information Superdragstrip you are confronted with a
consistent world language, you'll be encouraged to learn that
language. That will enrich that person as well as the global
community.
As the saying goes (in reference to adding internationalisation
support to computers): "It would be simpler to teach them all
English".

				Regards,

					Richard....
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