«

[Stroggy]

I like the blend of people we've got here and I'm afraid that, by making unique language forums people will just go to the part of the forum (except for the dutch-speaking people who - I've experienced - prefer English) in their language, thereby watering down the blend we have now. As it is I haven't seen anyone who can't manage the English language here and thus I think it would be better to keep things as they are.

I've heard that the latest trend in multilingual communities is to come together and talk with eachother, not segregate eachother from one another,... and that is what I fear these multilingual forums will do.

[A. J. Raffles]

Leaving globalisation and all that aside for the moment, don't you think it's a good thing, though, if people from a different cultural background can communicate with each other? There's no way I could communicate with somebody from India or Portugal or Hungary if it wasn't for English. Or to give a different example, chances are the you and I wouldn't be able to talk to each other if we didn't both speak English.
This isn't about people having to give up their native languages in favour of English, it's about being able to talk to others who don't share their language. No matter how many foreign languages you speak, you'll never be able to know them all, so it is a good thing to have a lingua franca.

[Lonely Vazdru]

Originally posted by A. J. Raffles@Aug 6 2005, 10:08 AM
so it is a good thing to have a lingua franca.

I agree with that. But the problem for many people is that english is that lingua franca. I personnaly think it fits quite well, and feel no danger of becoming a facist pig because i speak english. But it's easier to blame english, than to stop buying all of the things that makes your life confortable, and do, in fact, make the enemy stronger. If i was to live 1000 years i'd probably learn many different languages, but my lifespan being on a rather shorter scale, i'll stick with english and enjoy talking to many different people, from many different countries. If english can bring me that, how can it be evil ?

[Lonely Vazdru]

I'm not so sure about that. If i was to follow your view then it would be a good thing if there were more different languages. To the point where there would be
6 000 000 000 of them, one for each human, so nobody could speak with anybody. I'm sometimes scared too, of becoming a "uniform" society, but so far diversity is a total failure. People kill and hate each other because they don't speak the same language, wear the same clothes, worship the same gods, etc... If that's the price to pay, it's too high. I'd gladly give a go at "one planet, one language", and see if it can possibly become worse. I sincerely doubt it.


Edit : I have to point out that english is not my native language. I'm french and i love french, but i'll renounce speaking it forever if it meant getting one step closer to living in a world were people are less narrow-minded and proud of their local culture, instead of being proud of themselves. Nationalism sucks !

[A. J. Raffles]

Originally posted by Romano@Aug 6 2005, 10:24 AM
No, I do not agree that globalisation is a good thing! Expectation of linguists is that in our century the 6000 languages we have all over the world now, will be reduced to about 600. An the side effect will be unification in life style and decreasing of cultural diversity, with only one purpose: to accept servitude to western way of life which I do not like to much* :ranting:

Globalisation and the English language aren't synonymous, though (incidentally, the word "globalisation" has Latin roots, so it isn't really English either). I agree with you that it's a shame that so many languages are dying, but they're dying because people allow them to die, not because they are killed by another language (i.e. English), so complaining about it won't do. I'm certainly not asking you to accept a Western view of things if you don't want to, but again, you wouldn't even be able to tell me your opinion on this matter if we didn't both speak English. Cultural diversity is a fine thing, but where would we be if we were all just going to be as diverse as possible and never bother to interact with other cultures for fear of their undermining our cultural identities?

[Lonely Vazdru]

Romano, one last word before i go to dream city ! I respect your fight, but i think you got the wrong ennemy. Language is not an offensive weapon. Buying tons of useless muck, and watching too much TV is way more dangerous !

[Lonely Vazdru]

Cool i can go to sleep at peace ! :bye:

[Stroggy]

Originally posted by Romano@Aug 6 2005, 11:00 AM
And we would all drink Coca Cola when thirsty, and eat hamburger when hungry

That's a pointless countre-argument, I was pleading for the continuation of a uniform forum where we could all understand one another, not a uniform society.
There has always been a diplomatical language which everybody understands, now it's English, 70 years ago it was French (and still is in some countries)

[bruno]

if we can fight to let not die some language , this is a good place to use and try to meet someone that know , and who dasn´t now try to learn something

[Braindead]

I don't think adding forums dedicated to other languages is a good idea (so I voted I disagree).

2 reasons:
- it drifts the community apart, creating different casts of people.
- most people who use computers know how to express themselves in English , so I think it would have no added value of interesting topics we would not see if we keep it english only.