Well, how about including a rough auto-translator translation at the end of a message? I don't think people would mind as long as they get the gist of what's being said.
ak ----- Original Message ----- From: "Laurens Holst" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "MSX Mailinglist" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2001 7:40 AM Subject: Re: MSX Mailinglist in het Nederlands (Int: Re: MSX Mailinglist in Dutchh) > 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 > -- For info, see http://www.stack.nl/~wynke/MSX/listinfo.html
