[Foundation-l] English language dominationism is striking again

[Bence Damokos]

On Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 6:32 PM, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 9:21 AM, Gerard Meijssen
> <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > When you think that Commons is bad in supporting other languages, try to
> > find pictures of a horse on the internet in other languages like
> Estonian,
> > Nepalese ... It is not the same at all as when you are looking for images
> > in
> > English.
>
>
> Don't most Internet users know enough English to be able to search for
> "pictures of a horse" in English?
>
> (According to Wikipedia (
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Internet_usage),
> yes...  "Most Internet users speak the English language as a native or
> secondary language.")
>

If I read the data in the article correctly, most means 35%. If we consider
that current English native speakers mostly already have internet and those
without internet are likelier than not to be non-English speakers I would be
careful to advocate the unilateral use of English.

Best regards,
Bence