Quote:
Originally Posted by Shopaholic
There's a whole big, wide world out there geographically and internet-wise and yet somehow you think this one itty bitty (English speaking) forum, as great as it is, has a "HUGE" impact on Sony sales?  Hardly! |
There was no slight intended against other non-English language forums.
But facts are facts . . .
This is not an 'itty bitty' forum, it's the largest forum of it's type on this planet by a very very very large margin.
As Poppaea has pointed out, Sony's are indeed popular in countries outside the U.S. and UK and EU, even were they are not officially supported, and have to be 'hacked' like Russia.
Guess what? Most of those Russian guys who are doing the Sony reader hacking are ALSO members of this forum (and some English speaking users here also check in on the Russian forum using Google language tools to take advantage of their enhanced firmware.)
In English speaking forums like this one, someone from Germany can share thoughts with someone from China using a common language (english).
English has become the preeminent language on the Internet simply because it represents a convenient lingua franca for world commerce.
There is nothing insulting, oppressive, or tyrannical about this, because English, by its very nature, already includes elements derived from French, German, and dozens of other languages (like the phrase lingua franca for example which comes from Italian).
Because of the influence of the Internet, as this this trend continues, in a hundred years we will see a convergence towards a world version of English, that incorporates many more additions from other languages.
The fact that the English spoken in a hundred years may bear little resemblance to the colloquial American English spoken today doesn't bother me in the least, and I think most other Americans are pretty easy going about this.
So, please don't try to treat me like the "Ugly American" here, because in a way, the world has appropriated MY language, not the other way around.