From: "Chuck Smith" <msochuck(a)yahoo.com>
This can be quite an emotional issue for some,
especially those who are fighting against language
discrimination full-time. That's why I'm here in
Rotterdam volunteering for TEJO (
www.tejo.org).
Language discrimination is a tough issue and it's not
going to go away anytime soon... I just want to add,
that I don't think that you personally are
discriminating, but that you're simply not aware of
the problem. I hope I wasn't too harsh, it's just
that I feel quite strongly about these issues...
Indeed, Chuck,
As a non-native speaker of English
I've run into some bias, partly why
I'm known as Jay Bowks at work
and Jacinto Javier Bowks de la Rosa
to friends and family :-))) But I think
that it is a matter of economics too,
English makes money worldwide,
when a person from Finland and
a Spaniard want to talk business
they turn to English. We who may
speak an international auxiliary
lang though may want to combat
this, but it may be like fighting
against the wind, hot wind ;-)
If we worry too much about
English rather than keep marching
on the causes we treasure we
harm our goal of having a world
auxiliary or keeping alive the
local langs with few speakers.
After all, language is the best
carrier of culture I belive. If
a smaller tongue disappears
we risk loosing a culture and
a differing way of seeing the
world.
Notice that your Tejo page,
(very appealing and interesting),
has Eo and En as the welcoming
langs then an option to change into
something else. The true world
auxiliary is English, it's just the
way of things. During the 18th
and 19th centuries it may have
been French, before that maybe
Latin, no? But as things change
I feel more good can be accomplished
by devoting our energies to promoting
alternatives to English, rather than
try to put it down or fight against it.
Ride the English wave, surf it,
the flow may someday begin to
slow and its ebb may pull you back.
After all English may not be the
language of the future world of
business as things in the world
change.
But I know what you're saying
and I encourage you to keep
up your efforts for Tejo! Kudos
and the Esperanto Wikipedia is
awsome in looks and effort that
has gone into it, it shows, again,
Kudos!
w/ regards,
Jay B.