Within a generation we will surely have near perfect computerised text
translation and passable voice translation, so the problem will likely
disappear with time.
Stewart
Sent from my iPad
On 9 Mar 2014, at 14:48, "Ted Lemon" <ted(_dot_)lemon(_at_)nominum(_dot_)com>
wrote:
On Mar 8, 2014, at 8:02 PM, mohammed serrhini <serrhini(_at_)mail(_dot_)ru>
wrote:
I think their exclusion is not fair
the effort must be made by the latter because he has put himself in the
skin of the other
and must to ask him self , what happen in the case if native language is the
official language IETF is not English
One of the frustrations of life is that even if we recognize that something
is unfair, there may be limited possibilities for addressing the unfairness.
It was once the case that French was the language of diplomacy, and an
attempt was made to formulate an artificial language, Esperanto, for use by
diplomats as a new "lingua franca."
For better or for worse, the Internet broke that process (I don't think there
was much hope for Esperanto anyway). So what do we do now? Try to revive
Esperanto as a language for expressing standards? Choose a different
language, so as to change the lucky recipient of privilege?
I can't speak for other IETFers, but I am keenly aware of the unfairness of
the current situation. But the only thing I know how to do to fix it is to
help people for whom english is not their first language to participate in
english anyway. There is a lot of interest within the IETF in doing
this—it's not just me.
If you have ideas for how to change this, please share them with us. But
the mere fact that I as a native english speaker happen to be privileged at
the moment is a fact with which I am already painfully familiar (although no
doubt much less painfully than the non-native english speakers).
If other IETFers are not aware of this, it would be good if they could wake
up to it. I would certainly advise native-english-speaking IETFers to
really exercise patience when communicating with non-native speakers, keeping
in mind exactly what you, Mohammed, have said: that the situation is unfair,
and it is incumbent on those of us in the privileged position to do our best
to help those who are not.
But is that all we can do? And if we do it to the best of our ability, will
it be enough? And, I hate to say it, given that not everybody will see it
the way you do or the way I do, what else can we do?