On Sun, Dec 7, 2014 at 5:48 PM, Nkansah Rexford nkansahrexford@gmail.com wrote:
I don't get this part. How can I, an English speaking person, organize a session and speak Original Arabic? How?
Not expecting that.
Sessions are open for application. Whoever applies, and is picked, speaks the language he/she is comfortable with. At the end of the day, its not up to the WikiIndaba organizers to generate Arabic or English sessions. The speaker of the session's language is what determine the language to be used. Of which many who came from Tunisia and Egypt who are damn fluent in French and Arabic, but speak little in English, all decided to speak English, as they spoke to people from other parts of Africa.
Sure, but there are different ways to approach those other languages. I personally prefer to listen to fluent French than to bad English.
Samuel Guebo, ABir, Habib and Ouda, all had wonderful stories to share at wiki indaba. English is not their first language. These guys, for the benefit of all, decided to use a language that we all could hear. They could have spoken their various local languages, of which I think no one could have questioned them why, but they shared with all their lovely stories in a way all could benefit equally, of which I really appreciated.
Not suggesting to use any small local languages but try at least one session in for example Swahili. Even if it's just for the (further) emancipation of that language. Just have to arrange someone who can translate simultaneously. If the network is good enough there's software to make that happen. Of course the same can be done from English into other languages.
Thus the next conference, you are free to apply to handle a session, and you're welcome to speak French. No one will penalize you for that.
My English is actually a lot better than my French, so I would probably opt for English myself. I just think it makes sense to strongly encourage those who don't speak English to participate as both speakers and visitors, e.g. by at least trying to fill up an entire WikiIndaba track (space) with languages other than English.
Cheers, Kasper