Re: Some Questions About Thinking

[ Davey ] ([email protected])
Fri, 24 Mar 1995 14:29:53 -0500 (EST)


> >> everyone to use English, but rather to provide an infrastructure that
> >> supports all languages.
> >
> >This is exactly the sort of thinking I cannot abide by.
>
> On an ordinary day, I'd be tempted to respond to this in a vitriolic
> manner. Today, I simply cannot be bothered.

Erg. I can. Let me guess, English is the only language you
use, and you don't have to work with anyone who doesn't. Grrr.

> >I think it is we who are at a disadvantage, since we are allowed to
> >remain monolingual, while they are able to understand us, and still
> >communicate in their native tongue.

*We*? Speak for one's own self. *They*? Yeesh, how politically
un-correct. It is all *us*, and some of *us* use other character
sets. I move that we abolish all roman characters.

I read something very interesting in a cover-page article in
(I think) Wednesday's Wall St. Journal. It claimed that there
are more people on the planet speaking English as a "foreign"
language, than as a native one. Hm. Still, this is less than
one-fifth of the population.

People's communication will ultimately adapt to the tools
and avenues available. All this being true, I'm in favor of
flexibility of the tools.

[ d*b ]