Re: tlug: kanji or romaji for Japanese? (was: parallel-port IDE)

[John De Hoog <excess@example.com>]

Karl-Max Wagner <karlmax@example.com> wrote:
>... In the Internet the decision has
> already been taken: English rules. Whoever THINKS of setting up
> a website these days in another language than English ( apart
> from some cases with strictly local content that's not
> interesting to anybody outside a certain area ) ? Pretty much
> nobody.

Rubbish, as my British friends say. The Web is not always Worldwide,
despite its name. There's a substantial part of the Internet that exists
within particular language groups, as Jonathan has already noted. In
Japan, thousands of sites are created by and for the Japanese. Even if
there's no reason for you to read them, that doesn't mean they have no
reason to exist. Japanese people for the most part would prefer, if they
can, to learn about Linux-GNU and Perl and many other things in their
own language. The same goes for Chinese, Russians, Thais and millions of
other people all over the globe.

You are confusing the issue of publishing for the world (in which case
English does rule) and publishing for your own culture. In the latter
case, it makes sense to publish in your native language. Because of
that, your statement above is nonsense, pure and simple.

One more thing to note is that in some areas, at least, such as how to
use Japanese on Linux-GNU-X,  some of the best information is available
only in Japanese. Again, you are free to ignore it, but don't therefore
discount its worth, OK?

--
John De Hoog, Kichijoji, Tokyo
dehoog@example.com
excess@example.com
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