Jussi-Ville Heiskanen wrote:
Jimmy Wales wrote:
> Geni wrote:
>
>>>> "The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to empower and engage
>>>> people around the world " first line of the mission statement. By
>>>> actively promoting minority languages you lock more people into them
>>>> which is not consistent with trying to empower them.
>>>>
>
> I wrote:
>
>>> I do not share geni's views at all.
>>>
>
> Thomas Dalton wrote:
>
>> It doesn't seem that anyone does...
>>
>
>
> I should add at the same time that I think that it is a good thing for
> people to try to learn a relevant global language in addition to their
> local language, with the choice depending upon personal context.
>
>
I think you are really being too humble here in not mentioning
the fact that despite being a native speaker of *the* global "lingua
franca" you have yourself made an effort to "talk the extra mile"
and learn other languages.
> In many parts of the world and for many people,
English is an excellent
> choice of a second language. In other parts of the world (Francophone
> Africa for example), French is an excellent choice. Chinese might be
> good for some people. Russian for others. Hindi for others. There are
> many variables.
>
> And I hope that Wikipedia is helpful to people both in learning about
> the facts of reality (usually most comfortably done in your mother
> tongue) and in learning another language. I don't see these goals as
> being in competition at all, but rather mutually reinforcing.
>
> --Jimbo
>
At your service,
Jussi-Ville Heiskanen