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From: clarke@utcsri.UUCP
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Re: Suggestion for a new can. newsgroup
Message-ID: <4973@utcsri.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Jun-87 11:36:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsri.4973
Posted: Tue Jun 23 11:36:46 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 24-Jun-87 05:26:58 EDT
References: <8706230019.AA03446@ephemeral.ai.toronto.edu> <2022@ubc-ean.UUCP>
Reply-To: clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke)
Distribution: can
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 36
Summary: 

In article <2022@ubc-ean.UUCP> draskoy@ubc-ean.UUCP (Andrew Draskoy) writes:
>I would welcome discussion in French in any newsgroup, provided the
>french was kept fairly simple.  In my experience, most English Canadians
>understand a little french, but not enough to compose an involved letter.
>Discussion in French of familiar topics is likely to be easier to understand
>than other French text, and could be considered a kind of simple immersion
>programme....

NO!  We should *not* consider postings in French as part of a language training
program for English Canadians.  We should "welcome discussion in French" be-
cause discussion in French is one of the standard modes of communication among
Canadians, and this is can.general.  We should expect postings in French to be
kept simple only if we expect the same of English postings.

Mind you, knowing a few French-Canadians, I feel fairly safe in predicting that
they'll be pretty tolerant of us English-Canadians if we do use postings in
French to help us learn the language.  That way, we could learn two things:
(1) French, and (2) how to be polite when correcting people who misuse a lan-
guage in public.

A point of etiquette:  Jean-Francois Lamy posted a query in French, Alan
Rosenthal responded in English, and Jean-Francois responded in English.  I can
think of two rules that make sense here:  Follow up in the language of the
original posting, or follow up in your own language.  Either way, shouldn't
Jean-Francois's second posting have been in French?

There are other possible rules, of course, such as:  Use the language most
people will understand, or use a language you're sure the other fellow will
understand.  I consider neither of those is acceptable, because both would kill
discussions in French if even one English speaker commented in English.  Anyone
got any better ideas?
-- 

Jim Clarke -- Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4
              (416) 978-4058
{allegra,cornell,decvax,linus,utzoo}!utcsri!clarke