[Commons-l] Language on Commons (was: Racism in Commons)

[Ayelie]

On Dec 7, 2007 12:58 AM, <samuli at samulilintula.net> wrote:

> > Rama Rama wrote:
> >> Pedro and Gizmo, this is a *mailing list*, not a private channel; and
> it
> >> is the mailing list of Wikimedia Commons, which is, indeed,
> >> multi-lingual. Meaning that people from all language interact here. If
> >> you are speaking to everybody, it is common sense and courtesy to use a
> >> lingua franca that everybody understands. If you are not speaking to
> >> everybody, it is common sense and courtesy to bring the discussion to
> >> some private place where it belongs.
> >>
> >> -- Rama
> >
> > Again. I disagree.
> > Commons is a multilingual project. As such, the list is also
> > multilingual. It is up to them to consider that very few can read what
> > they write. They can also consider adding a warning in the topic line so
> > that people do not bother opening the message.
> >
> > But if a project is multilingual, then multilingualism should be okay.
>
> Minusta ei oikein voi sanoa samalla kertaa, että projekti on monikielinen
> ja jokainen voi käyttää omaa kieltään, ja että jos ei tule ymmärretyksi
> omalla kielellään, se on oma vika.
>
> Translated: I don't quite think you can, at the same time, say that a
> project is multilingual and you can use your own language, and that if you
> are not understood, it's your own fault.


I think the issue is more about being understood by very few people if you
are writing in a language other than English on a mailinglist which by
default happens to be conducted mainly in English. A mailing list is
different from a wiki, and every e-mail gets sent to every person regardless
of their primary language - unlike on the Commons website where there are
different-language village pumps and options on templates, pages, etc. to
view the information in other languages.

If you don't speak English or can understand it but not speak it well, I
don't see why we should (or how it is right to) say "no you can't post here,
English only". However if you do speak English remotely well, as common
courtesy it is nice to write in English (or write in your mother tongue and
translate into English, as Samuli did) in order to be understood by the
widest number of people. Italians may not understand Russian, the French may
not understand Danish, etc., but a huge percentage of people understand
English on some level.

--
Ayelie
   (Editor at Large)
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