Hello, Vittorio,
On 24/2/21 14:47, Vittorio Bertola wrote:
[....]
Then, I also suggest that the list is handed out to every new subscriber
of any IETF mailing list, because this is not the first time that I use
a perfectly normal term in my native language / environment and I find
someone jumping up and taking the issue as an offense (the last time was
with the term "militant", when chatting on this same issue).
I couldn't agree more with you.
Just to provide yet another example, last year it was argued on this
list what greeting with "cheers" (as o¡in "bye") could also result
offensive -- when I had always assumed that it was simply an informal
and polite way of saying "bye".
As a result, I am feeling like I should just stop participating in these
discussions for fear of using the wrong choice of language and getting
publicly shamed (and in my own culture, like in the Far East, in Arab
cultures and elsewhere, "saving your face" in public is paramount). So,
ironically, language correctness leads to self-censorship and exclusion.
Isn't there an implicit irony in expecting people from completely
different cultures and origins, who do not speak the language natively,
to speak their one's own language in a flawless manner, in the name of
inclusiveness and diversity?
The fact that people pick one language (out of many, regardless of how
prominent or widespread it may be), remove a few words, and dare to call
it "inclusive language", in a way, still amuses me.
Thanks,
--
Fernando Gont
SI6 Networks
e-mail: fgont@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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