On 03/09/2014 08:27 PM, Gordon Lennox wrote:
>
> PS If we do need to choose two languages then, because I spent a long
> time in Belgium and despite Belgium having three official languages, I
> propose Dutch and French. ;-),
Oooh. Dutch please!
My first knee-jerk reaction to a required IELTS score (I had never heard
of this, by the way) was "Sure. As long as english-only participants are
required to be fluent in a second language, just to know how hard it can
be'.
Having had the privilege of growing up in a country where foreign
languages are taught very early, I like to think I do pretty well
myself, even if I have to search for words now an then. But now that I
think about it, I *am* bothered sometimes by contributions that are hard
to parse. Bad use of language is one part of that. Bad articulation is
another. Superhuman speed ('the ekr') is a third.
In the latter two cases, a simple request can improve things a lot. The
first one is a bit harder, but I also don't think that committing to
multiple languages helps in the matter. It's a lot of overhead and I
don't think it scales very well.
However, perhaps there is something we can do; I'm not sure what form it
should take, but one thing could be for people to help each other out
with their english, e.g. some service where one can make requests 'I'm
having a hard time explaining this in english, and I do better in Dutch,
is there someone that can help me out?', or vice versa 'I am fluent in
Spanish and English and I can help someone who is struggling a bit'.
This could be for documents, or as support in presentations/discussions.
These are things that sometimes occur naturally as a wg is working on a
draft, but perhaps it might be possible to lend the process a hand.
Jelte