Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!vm.epas.utoronto.ca!MEGGIN
From: MEGGIN@vm.epas.utoronto.ca (David Megginson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: German on the net.
Message-ID: <89Nov9.231746est.57350@ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca>
Date: 10 Nov 89 04:01:39 GMT
References: <INFO-ATARI16-REQUEST@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 41

I tried a little experiment on the net. recently, and I apologise to
anyone who took offense. I posted a message in German, and received a
variety of answers, some to my message and some commenting on my use
of German.

1) US: The only people who complained about the German had US e-mail
   addresses. Most of them seemed to know some foreign languages, if
   not German, but it was the _idea_ of not using English which seemed
   to offend them. I guess that this grows out of the American
   "melting pot," where any culture is welcome but they all become the
   same.

2) Federal Republic of Germany: No comments on the language (I think
   one person politely thanked me, but said that he did not mind
   having to work in English.

3) United Kingdom: No one seemed to notice that the message was in
   German. They treated it the same way as they would have treated an
   English message.

4) Canada: Same as the UK. No offense at the German, and no notice
   of it either.

I wonder if the difference between the Atari communities in Canada and
Germany (which are flourishing) and that in the US (which is stagnating)
has something to do with this difference in attitudes? To be fair, I
did receive one or two messages from Americans who did not mention the
German at all. Also, the UK is having problems but they seem to be only
at the Atari corporate end.

The ST seems to do better in a cosmopolitan environment. Many of the
US addresses on the net either keep pouring out complaints that the
ST is not an IBM clone, or else they fiercely attack other US ST
users for daring to mention that the ST is not an IBM clone.

Most of what I see coming from non-US addresses, and, again to be
fair, a lot from US addresses, is concerned with problems and issues
on the ST itself -- they write and buy programs instead of always
complaining about them.

          David Megginson, Centre for Medieval Studies, Toronto