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Subject: Re: Posting in various languages -- some notions

Author: Jonas Cohonas

Date: 17:41:17 11/08/01

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On November 08, 2001 at 19:13:53, Dann Corbit wrote:

>For the most part, I think that everyone pretty much agrees that English is
>working well as an "Esperanto that acutally works."
>
>The problem comes along when someone does not understand English at all, or so
>poorly that they feel unable to communicate.  Now, in a case like this, we have
>several options.  We could use a translation service, and transfer from our
>Native language to English.  The problem with that approach is shown in this
>earlier post that I made:
>http://www.icdchess.com/forums/1/message.shtml?196383
>
>If you read that, you will find that some of the translators were acceptable
>(even getting the idioms right) and others commically horrible.  If you don't
>know English very well, and you translate into English, you might get something
>laughably awful.  In such a case, we would be much better off trying a
>translator ourselves, since we can usually tell when the translation is correct
>by reading its guess (but not always, of course).
>
>I suggest that the following approach be used for posting here:
>1.  If you are comfortable in English, then use that language.
>2.  If you have difficulty with English, then we could have a thing like the
>[MOD] to mark the message as different.  Maybe a [TRANSLATE] request could be
>added to the top.  Then, if someone decides to be helpful, we can get a
>translation into English.
>
>I imagine what it would be like if I had to post in French or Turkish.  I have
>some familiarity with both of those langauges (having taken a year of French
>both in high school and college, and having lived in Turkey for 2 years).  But
>if I had to converse in those languages it would be very, very difficult for me.
> I could probably do it, but it would really curtail my communication.  If I had
>to post in German or Finnish (where I only know a few vocabulary terms and swear
>words) it would be pretty hopeless.
>
>So, I think we should be encouraging, even of those who are not comfortable in
>English.  And if someone puts a [TRANSLATE] on the front of a subject, maybe we
>can give it a go if we happen to know the original language of the post.

I think that is a very good idea, this also offers the poster a chance to get
aquainted with the english language.

Regards
Jonas



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