On 8 Mar 2014, at 14:15, l(_dot_)wood(_at_)surrey(_dot_)ac(_dot_)uk wrote:
You'll find it stated in a number of places that the working language
of
the IETF is English. Well, yes.
What is not stated is how good that English has to be to participate
fully in technical discussion to get the most out of IETF
participation.
I would suggest that an IELTS score of 7.0 or higher, or equivalent,
in all categories is a good indicator of being able to participate
fully.
If someone is unable to achieve that level, they, and everyone
interacting with them, will find written exchanges very frustrating,
to the detriment of discussion overall.
If we're going to write RFCs codifying behaviour, we can codify this,
too.
<madly checking to see if I've slept a few weeks, and it's already April
1st>
<damn, it's not, I guess he's serious>
You may want to think about this a bit more before formally taking this
position... I don't think the IETF can afford to enfeeble itself by
excluding colleagues and collaborators who do not have a fluent grasp of
English (native tongue or not).
How would you feel if there was a countervailing proposal that stated
that participants needed equivalent fluency in 普通話 / Putonghua?
I'm sure there are a lot of participants in the IETF who would be more
comfortable with that decision rather than English.
Respectfully,
Christopher
Lloyd Wood
http://about.me/lloydwood
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