Re: [ripe-167] Impressions brought from Moscow meeting
- Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 12:54:21 +0100 (MET)
> Sergey A. Mukhin writes:
> >> Why Luxembourgers doesn't ask RIPE to be served in Leutzebuergesch?...
> >> Anyone from Grand Duchy?
> >>
>
> A> No, but as a Russian (albeit working in another country) I see no reason to not
> A> insist on English as the workinglanguage. It's the lingua franca for the
> A> internet, most operating syststems are based on some form of english
> A> shorthand for the commands, and frankly, at least up until theend of the
> A> communist era, there were more English language teachers per capita in
> A> Russia than there were in the U.S. (and most of them were better, too.....)
>
> Quite right, Alex. It is okay about Moscow, St Petersbourg and some other
> cities. And we are connecting other regions where it is not so. Think
> it would be better if people all over the world spoke the only language,
> but is it possible? Hope it would change ( English language in Russia and
> ex-USSR countries ) but God knows when. And things would run better if
> we have office speaking English to all the world and Russian to people
> which have not learned English good enough yet.
>
>
Here in Switzerland, not matter what, you have to speak English in order to
deal effectively with our verious clients and admnistrate a our part of a
network which uses English as the de-facto language. Sure, we use German,
French and Italian daily with our customers, but on the international admin
level, English is it. No question, no argumaents. Granted, as a lingua
franca English is relatively young, but I prefer it over Latin and Greek.
Who knows what will emerge as the next international language but the end
of the next century ( I suspect it will be Chinese), but it is not important.
English is the administrative languag of the net, just as it is for aviation.
So be it. Most people can quickly learn enough bad English to be understood
and to understand, and, coming from Russian, I can't say the same for that
deeply beautiful and nuanced language. To add to this point, while Russian
is of course easier for a Moscow-base office, for the Russians, if it is
admistrating the CIS or some version of slavic blocks, don't you think that
many of the other slavic nations will be offended by being forced to use
Russian. (In my dealings with the Poles recently, although they grudgingly
permitted me to use Russian from time to time, they were truly appreciative
by my refusal to do so, since I had no wish to offend them. Same for the
Ukranians.) There are many sensitivities here.... English is more neutral........
Lots of good reasons to keep English in place...
Aleks
