A bit late, but my two cents... > Well, it seems there are quite enough people subscribed to this mailing > list to translate a posting now and then, though it should NOT become a > habbit of posting only dutch messages. Most dutch people on the Internet do > have enough knowledge of the english language to be able to read (and > write) any sort of messages.
There are a lot of people who cannot speak or even read English very well. For example Rinus Stoker, a very prominent figure in the Dutch MSX 'world', and the local clubs also probably have got lots of members who can't. If they can communicate between eachother, in an easy way, I think that's great. The Dutch magazines can put small advertisements in their magazines to notify the people of it. With some effort, you can let quite an amount of people subscribe to that list I think. And it will boost the MSX activities of the people subscribed. I know this list is highly responsible for keeping me alive in the MSX scene, without it I would have been bored with MSX ages ago. So if someone wants to do this, I greatly encourage it. However, effort has to be made. The Dutch MSX users, especially those of the local MSX clubs, have to be contacted through channels like the magazines and the club organizations, and that should happen in a way interesting enough so that people decide to check it out. > I find this question quite suitable now, sinc this kind of thing is quite > repetitious: Why are Dutch people so persistant in needing anything in > Dutch-only? I never read Saku wanting a Finnish MSX Mailinglist or anybody > else out of the Netherlands wanting an MSX Mailinglist in their own language. In contrary, I actually think a lot of Dutch people are way too fast in speaking English. I have seen several situations where someone can speak English well, but he/she can also understand a little Dutch. Dutch people in general immediately switch to English if it is not understood right right away. It's also seen on TV. If someone from Germany is speaking in a congress or so, he/she speaks German, and a translator translates into English. If someone from France is speaking, idem dito. But does our prime minister Kok speak Dutch? No way. So, my point, as I see on this list, almost all Dutch people rather have an English list than a Dutch one. This reflects my expectations of the Dutch in general. I myself also rather use an international mailinglist, but compared to other countries we (the Dutch) are very much English-ized. Take a look at Spain, Brazil, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, even certain parts of America! However you must not forget that there is still a relatively large amount of people not being able to speak, read or write English very well, or who much rather speak Dutch. Therefor I think it is a good idea to create a seperate Dutch discussion forum, like a mailinglist (yahoo groups please :)), and the ones who prefer to write English, and like to reach a larger community, typically the current Dutch members of the MSX Mailinglist, can still post here. I really don't think it will decrease MSX discussions on this list. At the worst the other list will die a silent death, and I think special care has to be taken to prevent that, and to give it a good start. As for important news not reaching the international MSX users, I am sure that if any really important discussions are going on, the MSX Mailinglist will be kept up to date by several Dutch people. > BTW... Didn't we have such a discussion over and over? Afaik, no. ~Grauw -- For info, see http://www.stack.nl/~wynke/MSX/listinfo.html
