Technically English is my second language since I was born in Germany and didn't get into using it seriously and as my primary language until my age of 16. I still speak garbly di goo especially when I am nervous or excited. My brain can't process as fast as I want to speak the language. It shuts down and easily formats sentences the German style. I have to say though that sometimes it is appropriate to comment on ones language. Due to the fact that I am always willing to learn new stuff and as well improve the way I use language I wouldn't be opposed to have important misuses of English words pointed out to me. If it is done honestly and with true intent to help the other person then it could only strengthen the other persons knowledge and abilities to communicate. I myself have met a lot of people at college who are from non-English speaking countries and every person speaks it with a different slant and different level of competency. I have no shame to admit that some people were in such poor state that the ability to communicate was not there. Admitting to this fact is not being racist. Treating an individual different or with less respect due to these circumstances is racism. Overall I have to say that I find English is not a very elegant language. The sound of French is much more romantic, German quite functional and Asian languages very exotic. But I find English is a great language because it is easy to learn holds the least amount of grammar rules and male/female blah blah stuff and can be used to express everything with a few simple words. I think it would be sad to see other languages vanish but I also feel it must happen so the communication barriers in this world are broken down and close to every person on earth speaks the same language (with different slang) in the business world. mk

From: Cliff Sarginson To: suse-linux-e@suse.com Subject: [SLE] The criticism of the use of "bad" english [was [SLE] modem] Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2001 19:50:29 +0200 MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: from [202.58.118.7] by hotmail.com (3.2) with ESMTP id MHotMailBD7E09AF009D4004321ECA3A760708010; Fri, 28 Sep 2001 11:17:19 -0700 Received: (qmail 23488 invoked by alias); 28 Sep 2001 18:14:36 -0000 Received: (qmail 23430 invoked from network); 28 Sep 2001 18:14:36 -0000 From suse-linux-e-return-73814-purpleshirt Fri, 28 Sep 2001 11:17:31 -0700 Mailing-List: contact suse-linux-e-help@suse.com; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk X-No-Archive: yes list-help: mailto:suse-linux-e-help@suse.com list-unsubscribe: mailto:suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com list-post: mailto:suse-linux-e@suse.com X-Mailinglist: suse-linux-e Delivered-To: mailing list suse-linux-e@suse.com Message-ID: <20010928195029.D4030@raggedclown.net> References: <3BB37FDF.20295.2F2FB1@localhost> <20010927165348.G12860@whack.org> <01092815085903.01807@lagothrix> User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.16i In-Reply-To: <01092815085903.01807@lagothrix>; from mwebster@ntlworld.com on Fri, Sep 28, 2001 at 03:08:59PM +0000

...

On Thursday 27 September 2001 11:53 pm, Ben Rosenberg wrote:

...

This is quite rude. Some people..a lot of people on this list do not speak/write English as their first language and just may have some trouble doing so. I can understand what they are asking, so I would think that others could as well.

I think it is a lot more than quite rude, it is disgusting. It is fine to ask people to try and format their messages better and use meaningful subject headers, but to criticise

On Fri, Sep 28, 2001 at 03:08:59PM +0000, Martin Webster wrote: their english is just racist. I wonder how many foreign languages the complainant has mastered to the extent that he could pose a technical enquiry on a mailing list.

He should apologise.

-- Regards Cliff

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