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Originally Posted by anamardoll
I'm American, so I'm all about Ze English, you know, but I get a little worried when I see this:
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I am not. Neither American nor worried, that is.
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I've never seen anyone seriously suggest that if people REALLY cared about open sourcedness, then they'd go the extra mile and translate the documentation into Spanish or German or Russian or Mandarin or something - it's always English.
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Yes, always. Resources are usually limited, so full-fledged localisation and internationalization efforts are the hallmark of big, long-running, successful (or: commercial) projects. In the meantime, as a working language, there's always English. I say that as somebody whose mother tongue is
not English, mind you. English has become a
de facto lingua franca, and I for one don't think that's a bad thing. In Europe alone we speak (depending on how and what you count) 20+ languages. I don't speak Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Italian, Spanish or most of the others -- but I do speak English.
If we do accept that assumption, i.e. that there is a need for one shared language, English is probably one of the better choices. It's comparatively easy to learn (at least to the extent needed to follow comments in the code or technical documentation and such) and widely spoken already.
Take this forum: yes, there is a German or French section, but really, most of the discussions are to be found right here, in the English part. Why do you think that is? Or, take Linux: If Mr. Torvalds had decided to release his kernel sources in Swedish (only), how many people would have (could have) bothered?
So, embrace it. It's good of you to realize that other people sometimes have to make a bit more of an effort because they are communicating in a foreign language. Be kind to them where warranted. But, please, don't feel guilty; there's really no need to.
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I agree that English documentation is VERY nice for me to have, but I don't expect developers to be fluent in every language on earth so they can answer my questions.
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No, not every language; that's just the point I've been trying to make: English
instead of anything and everything else. Any self-respecting geek must have a smatter of English these days. Not using it is just intellectual laziness.
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... for not translating all their documentation into English for my convenience.
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Well, it would be my convenience, too. I don't expect much in the way of German (my native language), but English would certainly be appreciated.