2008/12/3 Yaroslav M. Blanter <putevod(a)mccme.ru>ru>:
> Only after a while did it become apparent that he
was talking of
> the English Wikipedia. Some surprised librarian asked "are you
> now talking of the English Wikipedia?" His answer was something
> like "yes, the Swedish is almost completely useless" (for advanced
> astronomy). In the undergraduate astronomy classes he was
> teaching, all literature is in English. This seemed like an
> unknown planet to the Swedish librarians. And I guess that their
> surprise came as an equal surprise to the astronomer.
After eight years of teaching physics at a Dutch
university and active
participation in scientific activities all over the country, I am still to
see a scientific talk given in Dutch.
en:wp is very much an international Wikipedia, not just for English
native speakers at all. This leads to some difficulties (apparently
infinite supplies of nationalist POV-pushers in some conflicts, for
example), but is almost certainly good for NPOV.
This is no reason to neglect the other Wikipedias - English just
happens to be the current lingua franca and may not be in 100 years.
- d.