Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!linus!linus!mbunix.mitre.org!afalcone
From: afalcone@mbunix.mitre.org (Falcone)
Subject: Re: (Natural) languages (on UseNet)
Message-ID: <1991Jun13.151527.18924@linus.mitre.org>
Sender: afalcone@mbunix.mitre.org (Tony Falcone)
Nntp-Posting-Host: mbunix.mitre.org
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA
References: <56115@nigel.ee.udel.edu> <1991Jun12.220714.27402@doe.utoronto.ca> <33564@usc.edu>
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 1991 15:15:27 GMT

In article <33564@usc.edu> kjh@pollux.usc.edu (Kenneth J. Hendrickson) writes:

>>I think that German, French and English, at very
>>least, have good claims for being international languages in the
>>Western world and, thus, on the Usenet (I should probably add
>>Spanish), and I won't even get into the Asian languages. What do the
>>net gods have to say about this one?
>
>Most Americans are too ignorant to know any of the non-English European
>languages, let alone mention any Asian languages.  (Actually, many
>Americans couldn't find Illinois on a map.)  For us, it would be good if
>only English was used.

I disagree.  While I am fortunate enough to have learned enough French
and German to read these languages, I am nowhere near fluent, which is
an embarrassment to me.  While I agree that many (I'll refrain from
using the word "most") Americans are too ignorant to know any language
other than English, (or, more disgracefully, too smug in their belief
that the only language they need to know is English, since *everyone*
speaks it), why should this ignorance be catered to?  Maybe it's a good
thing for us coddled Americans to be made aware that there's a whole
world outside our borders, where people speak different languages,
have different customs, etc.

I offer the following analogy (take it for what it's worth; in the
words of Jubal Harshaw, analogy is even slipperier than logic):
Suppose you come across an article on the net on a subject about which
you know nothing.  In fact, you have it on good authority that only
about ten percent of the people who read the newsgroup know anything
about this subject.  (BTW, ten percent is *not* intended to represent
the number of German-speaking comp.os.minix readers; I have no idea
how many there are.)  Do you post to the newsgroup, telling these
people not to submit any more articles on this subject, since ninety
percent of the regular readers neither know nor care about this topic?
No, what you probably do is just strike the "n" key, or if you are
more ambitious, browse through the article and try to understand bits
and pieces of it (which is what I do with the German submissions).  I
no more expect to learn German by skimming through a German submission
than a first year physics student is going to learn Quantum Mechanics
by leafing through her professors' journal articles, but that doesn't
mean such activities are entirely wasted.

And even if I had absolutely no interest in understanding the
non-English submission, I would still maintain that it has a right
to be posted, as long as the subject is germane to the newsgroup, and
it is not pseudo-personal correspondence (both conditions having
nothing to do with the language in which it is written).

Sorry to be so long-winded.  BTW, I am not impugning anyone with the
above analogy; I certainly don't mean to suggest that anyone is
looking to police the newsgroup.  I just think it's beneficial to
have a truly international exchange of ideas, and if this exchange
comprises several languages, it will only be enriched.

Tony Falcone (afalcone@mbunix.mitre.org)