Kushal Hada wrote: > > Deepak Dai > > (at the risk of procrastination ...) Is it necessary that the user > interface be in Nepalese language? It would be wonderful if the students > could learn English language in schools. > > : If Nepali language is not mandatory for you (and I hope it is not > mandatory for schools), you can run in the default EN- US settings. > > : I know this is FOSS Nepal and Nepalinux is a FOSS Nepal product but I > am sure no one will tell you to use Nepalinux just because of that. > > Kushal > > > Kushal bhai,
Nepali language is not mandatory for for the project. But, since FOSS is about choices, I think school computers should run the OS in Nepali language for the following reasons: 1. Language should not be a barer for learning computers. Most people think good English is necessary to operate computers. Since the project focuses on government run schools in the villages, English could be a big language problem for the students as well as the teachers. If the OS is in Nepali, they will feel more comfortable and it will boost their learning confidence. 2. EN-US setting is a BIG problem. If the computer is in Nepal, it should be set to en-NP or ne-NP. Most of the Windows computer run in Nepal also suffer badly from this problem. For example: Currency symbol is set to $ because of EN-US setting. 3. With Nepali OS, students can learn Nepali keyboard skills too. It is a shame on computer literate Nepali community that 99% of them don't know how to type in their own language. There is still no standard keyboard layout. We could use Nepali Unicode Romanized from MPP as the standard keyboard layout. If the OS is set in Nepali, the students will definitely learn how to type in Nepali too. 4. Students can run English learning softwares even if the OS is in Nepali. We could set Nepali/English language options at the login screen so that the students could select their preferred language. I hope u understand why I prefer to make the OS Nepali language enabled. Deepak --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ FOSS Nepal mailing list [email protected] http://groups.google.com/group/foss-nepal Community website: http://www.fossnepal.org/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
