Re: tlug: kanji or romaji for Japanese? (was: parallel-port IDE)

[Karl-Max Wagner <karlmax@example.com>]

> Karl-Max Wagner <karlmax@example.com> wrote:
> >... In the Internet the decision has
> > already been taken: English rules. Whoever THINKS of setting up
> > a website these days in another language than English ( apart
> > from some cases with strictly local content that's not
> > interesting to anybody outside a certain area ) ? Pretty much
> > nobody.
> 
> Rubbish, as my British friends say. The Web is not always Worldwide,

Wrong. It is always worldwide. It's just that it is not always
used that way for varying reasons.

> despite its name. There's a substantial part of the Internet that exists
> within particular language groups, as Jonathan has already noted. In

The "local content" I mentioned.

> Japan, thousands of sites are created by and for the Japanese. Even if
> there's no reason for you to read them, that doesn't mean they have no
> reason to exist. Japanese people for the most part would prefer, if they

There is no such statement in my post ! That's not what "cases
with strictly local content that's not interesting to anybody
outside a certain area" means. That states clearly what the
reason of its existence is.

> can, to learn about Linux-GNU and Perl and many other things in their
> own language. The same goes for Chinese, Russians, Thais and millions of
> other people all over the globe.

I can say for the Russians that they fully understand the
importance of English. It has always been the first foreign
language at school. The second normally is German. Actually, the
percentage of Russians speaking good English is a lot higher
that of Japanese speaking good English. The same goes for most
other ex east block countries.

Same goes for Thailand. In China they have a number of
incompatible dialects and with further inroads from the net
popularity of English sure will increase. It may well happen
that they do the same as the Indians eventually - select English
as the language for communication beyond local boundaries.

In South America and Africa most educated people tend to speak
good English, too ( I often meet South Americans and Africans,
so I know ).

In Greenland and Iceland English rules ( they use their own
languages, too, of course but for international communications
they use English ).

> You are confusing the issue of publishing for the world (in which case
> English does rule) and publishing for your own culture. In the latter
> case, it makes sense to publish in your native language. Because of
> that, your statement above is nonsense, pure and simple.

You again for get my statement of "cases with strictly local
content that's not interesting to anybody outside a certain
area"

> One more thing to note is that in some areas, at least, such as how to
> use Japanese on Linux-GNU-X,  some of the best information is available
> only in Japanese. Again, you are free to ignore it, but don't therefore
> discount its worth, OK?

See above. It's stuff of local interest. I NEVER said that it is
nothing worth or the like.

It is certainly true that I don't have a lot of interest in
language adaption technology and the like ( this clearly is a
very specialized technical area only of interest to the people
involved ). Most of the stuff I need has nothing to do with
local peculiarities ( except stuff with a purely local touch
like some everyday info about the local area here ).

In net behaviour, however, I guess I am fairly typical. I
already asked around and found out that others ( in Europe and
in the US ) have much the same needs and uses of the net.

================================================================
"It was hell. They knew it.          Karl-Max Wagner
  But they called it                 karlmax@example.com
    W-I-N-D-O-Z-E"
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