[WSIS CS-Plenary] linguistic barriers - resist them don't let them stop us

[Anriette Esterhuysen]

Hallo all

One further addition to make to this discussion about language. I 
support many useful points made by others already.

It would be very helpful to have a tool to assist with mailing list 
translation and I think the work being done by Funredes and their 
partners is really groundbreaking. 

But it will be much easier to address our multi-lingualism (with such 
tools, and without) if people practice better list etiquette. E.g. if 
participants submitted their ideas and positions in the form of:

-proposals
-articles
-position or discussion pieces
-stories, experiences, etc.

Such documents or messages can then be translated by volunteer 
translators or by organisations that have the capacity to provide or 
facilitate translation. 

It is simply not feasible to expect such resources to be applied to the 
translation of quite personalised discussions dominated by a few 
individuals.

In other words, people should spent more time on expressing their 
actual ideas about the topics under discussion, in whatever language 
works best for them. 

Anriette


------------------------------------------------------
Anriette Esterhuysen, Executive Director
Association for Progressive Communications
anriette at apc.org
http://www.apc.org
PO Box 29755, Melville, South Africa. 2109
Tel. 27 11 726 1692
Fax 27 11 726 1692



-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.1 - Release Date: 2005/04/01