Nazrul,
You've raised excellent points. In many ways it seems the Internet and
the global economy has made English the standard language of the world.
I think it is arrogant of those of us whose native language is
English to assume that everyone should be able to use our language. I
know there are those who feel that if a country wants to be global
economy they should be teaching English to their students, and perhaps
there is some wisdom in that, but I feel strongly that one of the
problems in the world today is the Americanization of the world. I see
it every time I travel. It is becoming blatantly obvious in Dhaka. I
still prefer New Market to the new Western style shopping malls that
are creeping up all over Dhaka. My point is we need to value both the
cultures and the languages of each country. I am a strong believer
that the Internet must be accessible in all languages. I wish the Web
translators were better. I use them to access information that is not
in English, but they are still glitchy and flawed. I've used them with
K-12 students doing projects with students in other countries. They are
great tools for students doing global projects, but the translations
are not great! I've recently taken a "Flat Stanley" to Dhaka. You
might be interested in the Web site I've been creating for the class
that gave me the Flat Stanley to take with me on this trip. The URL
for my site is http://www.lullah.com/flatstanley/index.html. If you
are not familiar with the Flat Stanley project you might check out:
http://flatstanley.enoreo.on.ca/
Linda Ullah
Foothill College Krause Center for Innovation
Los Altos Hills CA
http://www/foothill.edu/kci
[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Feb 7, 2006, at 9:22 PM, Nazrul Islam wrote:
Hi Cindy,
I totaly agree with your point. Language is going to be one of the
barriers in bridging the information gap in coming years. We are
talking a lot of digital divide and promoting selling of technologies.
But we also need to be focused on making technology relevant to the
local context. What is the use of great search engines like Google
or Yahoo if one cant read its content. You can find millions of people
around the world who have access to computers and internet but cant
read the most contents available on web.
We should not talk only about the locally relevant content but also
about contents in local languages. In Bangladesh many people do not go
to cyber cafe in the fear that they will not be able to read its
contents which is mostly in English. Or they will not be able to
communicate ( emailing) in their own language. Surely this is painful
for them and it just widens the existing information gap.
Regards,
Nazrul
-------------------------
M. Nazrul Islam
Director, Information and Communication Technology for Development
Relief International-Schools Online, Bangladesh Country Office
House # 210, Road # 2(East), Baridhara DOHS, Dhaka-1206
Tel. (8802)8816615, 8812056, Ext- 110
www.connect-bangladesh.org, www.ri.org, www.schoolsonline.org
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cell: (88)0175537544, (88)0192053996
Message: 3
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 23:54:37 +0000 (GMT)
From: Cindy Lemcke-Hoong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [DDN] Multilingualism in Cyberspace
To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Hello Nazrul,
Language is a real issue especially since WSIS the
promotion of the 100USD lap-top.
I have always questioned the notion of English as the
defacto internet language. For countries/people who
are not knowledgeable in this langauge, with the
digital content mostly in English, that would mean the
burden is AGAIN on those poorer/digital hungry
countries/people. So how good it is to give them a
lap-top while they cannot read what is there?
I have spoke out about language divide for the past
3,4 years. But, small voice generates no punch. After
all people who is on this list precisely because they
know English, if not English is their native language.
They don't feel the pain of those who are locked out
because they lack the language ability.
Cindy
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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