MEGGIN@vm.epas.utoronto.ca (David Megginson) (11/10/89)
I tried a little experiment on the net. recently, and I apologise to
anyone who took offense. I posted a message in German, and received a
variety of answers, some to my message and some commenting on my use
of German.
1) US: The only people who complained about the German had US e-mail
addresses. Most of them seemed to know some foreign languages, if
not German, but it was the _idea_ of not using English which seemed
to offend them. I guess that this grows out of the American
"melting pot," where any culture is welcome but they all become the
same.
2) Federal Republic of Germany: No comments on the language (I think
one person politely thanked me, but said that he did not mind
having to work in English.
3) United Kingdom: No one seemed to notice that the message was in
German. They treated it the same way as they would have treated an
English message.
4) Canada: Same as the UK. No offense at the German, and no notice
of it either.
I wonder if the difference between the Atari communities in Canada and
Germany (which are flourishing) and that in the US (which is stagnating)
has something to do with this difference in attitudes? To be fair, I
did receive one or two messages from Americans who did not mention the
German at all. Also, the UK is having problems but they seem to be only
at the Atari corporate end.
The ST seems to do better in a cosmopolitan environment. Many of the
US addresses on the net either keep pouring out complaints that the
ST is not an IBM clone, or else they fiercely attack other US ST
users for daring to mention that the ST is not an IBM clone.
Most of what I see coming from non-US addresses, and, again to be
fair, a lot from US addresses, is concerned with problems and issues
on the ST itself -- they write and buy programs instead of always
complaining about them.
David Megginson, Centre for Medieval Studies, Torontodsmythe@cup.portal.com (dave l smythe) (11/14/89)
Because USENET is a world-wide network, it only makes sense to use the international standard language: English. If it's good enough for the UN, air-traffic control, and international radio communications, it's good enough for USENET. At the very least, if you are going to post in a language other than English, restrict the distribution to those areas that are likely to know the language. If you need wider distribution, use a more common language. Dave Smythe dsmythe@cup.portal.com
cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (11/16/89)
In article <24029@cup.portal.com> (dave l smythe) writes: >Because USENET is a world-wide network, it only makes sense to use >the international standard language: English. ... That's what I like about Usenet, you can make a fool of yourself in front of millions of people and never know they are amused much less rolling in the aisles. Sorry Dave if you meant to put a smiley face on your post and forgot it. You should travel to France sometime and get the language bigotry issue turned around (those french people seem to believe that _French_ is the international standard language you see ...). So why do you believe English is the international standard language? Why isn't it Japanese? Or French, or German for that matter? --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@Eng.Sun.COM These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you. "If it didn't have bones in it, it wouldn't be crunchy now would it?!"
ge@kunivv1.sci.kun.nl (Ge' Weijers) (11/22/89)
dsmythe@cup.portal.com (dave l smythe) writes: >Because USENET is a world-wide network, it only makes sense to use >the international standard language: English. If it's good enough >for the UN, air-traffic control, and international radio communications, >it's good enough for USENET. FYI, the UN has not standardized to English as THE working language. Perhaps access to USENET should be restricted to people that know at least two languages :-) >At the very least, if you are going to >post in a language other than English, restrict the distribution to >those areas that are likely to know the language. If you need wider >distribution, use a more common language. The USENET software is currently too limited for that. You can't say 'everywhere except the USA'. Given the popularity of the ST in Germany it might be best to change the working language of this group to German (half :-) ). Actually, posting in German to the US is a waste of resources in this respect, so I grudgingly admit you have a point there. Ge' Weijers Ge' Weijers Internet/UUCP: ge@cs.kun.nl Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, (uunet.uu.net!cs.kun.nl!ge) University of Nijmegen, Toernooiveld 1 6525 ED Nijmegen, the Netherlands tel. +3180612483 (UTC-2) Ge' Weijers Internet/UUCP: ge@cs.kun.nl Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, (uunet.uu.net!cs.kun.nl!ge) University of Nijmegen, Toernooiveld 1 6525 ED Nijmegen, the Netherlands tel. +3180612483 (UTC-2)