I have an observation to make. It is an excellent goal to make available
content to the masses in regional languages, but does the content uphold the
same principles as the english wiki does? viz- neutrality, brilliant prose
and so on?
I remember accessing the Marathi wikipedia a year back, and content there
was parochial and limited. Are there any suggestions to counteract this
scenario from happening?
Regards,
--Nicholas
On Feb 11, 2008 10:25 PM, Shiju Alex <shijualexonline(a)gmail.com> wrote:
educated rich Indians thinking English is a
"better" language than their
own native language is a big obstacle to Indian
Wikipedias...
This is really true. This is one of the biggest obstacle that all the
Indian language wikies are facing. I have also got the same type of answers
as Pradeep got.
Moreover, it is very sad to note that most of these educated rich young
generation (read convent educated, city dwellers, and so on) are *Mother
Tongue Illiterates*. *And they are feeling proud about it.*
*Mother Tongue Illiteracy* is growing among educated Indians. This is one
of the biggest obstacle.
Regards
Shiju Alex
On 2/11/08, Pradeep Makineni <makineni.pradeep(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Thank you Gerard and Bernard.
I completely agree with your thoughts. These would be some of the
points I will consider when someone asks me "Why Wikipedia in Indian
languages". I even have some examples where parents who send their kids to
English medium schools, clarify their child's questions in their native
language but not in English. This would show how it is easier to express in
native language than in other languages, especially when we are talking with
children.
On Feb 10, 2008 10:27 PM, Bernard Massot <bmassot(a)free.fr> wrote:
On Sun, Feb 10, 2008 at 12:05:18PM +0530, Pradeep
Makineni wrote:
What would you tell, if are going to answer these
questions or
concerns? Note that most (or all) of wikipedians who contribute to
Indian language wikipedias are fluent in English also. And I
believe,
most of the folks who read (if any) these
wikipedias are also fluent
in English.
People always feel more comfortable with their native language.
Also, as you wrote, "most of" them also speak English, not all of
them.
There are Indians who good access Internet but don't speak English.
For
instance a part of NRIs living in non-English speaking countries.
AFAIK it's currently impossible to use computers with knowing only
Indian languages so that would make knowing English a prerequisite to
accessing Wikipedia. However we could imagine people having access to
a
printed version of Wikipedia.
But that's right, educated rich Indians thinking English is a "better"
language than their own native language is a big obstacle to Indian
Wikipedias...
--
Bernard Massot
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--
Pradeep Makineni
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