Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!columbia!cs.columbia.edu!cunixf!shoulson
From: shoulson@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Mark E. Shoulson)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: CALL FOR DISCUSSION: soc.culture.german
Message-ID: <1990Feb23.154554.7158@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Date: 23 Feb 90 15:45:54 GMT
References: <1472@serene.UUCP> <5218@brazos.Rice.edu>
Reply-To: shoulson@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Mark E. Shoulson)
Organization: Columbia University
Lines: 44

In article <5218@brazos.Rice.edu> dorai@titan.rice.edu (Dorai Sitaram) writes:
>In article <1472@serene.UUCP> lyled@pnet12.cts.com (Lyle Davis) writes:
>>I would suggest, however, that messages within the conference be required to
>>be in English; to allow messages sent in German would sharply reduce your
>>potential "market" of users.  There are many users of German extraction who
>>would be interested in their ancestral home, yet do not speak or read the
>>language.  Certainly, you would not want to exclude them.
>>
>>On the other paw, most German students, I understand, do speak and read
>>English.
>
>I think the above posting is very clear in stating which language is
>expendable.  I'm not sure that's quite healthy.  How about letting
>each poster post in German or English as s/he wants, and whether s/he
>provides a translation is also up to him/er?  To make German the
>expendable language in its own group is unfair, and to allow English
>postings freely is fair enough without having to push it by demanding
>"English-only."
>
[...stuff about English-only groups....]
>In contrast, the Latinamerican group seems to have hit upon the best
>solution of all.  Postings fly freely and amicably in both English and
>Spanish (with a bit of Portuguese on the side).  In fact, one often
>notices follow-ups in a different language from the original posting.
>This highlights the fact that there are lots of folk out there who may
>not be totally comfortable writing a language but understand it
>handsomely.

Let's face it, guys.  If you want to have a "culture" newsgroup, you have
to allow people to post in the language of the culture.  Language is an
important part of someone's identification with his culture.  It's a nice
thing to post bilingually, or always to follow up an article in the same
language as the original, but it shouldn't be required.  Of course, some
languages are difficult to post in, owing to the lack of non-English
characters in ASCII and the non-standardization of transliterations in many
languages, but in the case of German I imagine you could make do.  It's a
laudable thing to keep the language of a culture in use in a culture group
like that, and should even help those non-German speakers you worry about
acquire an interest in the language.

~mark
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