Foreign Language

I know I could just go ahead and make a thread for it, but I figured it couldn't hurt to gauge interest here first.

As you know, English is the official language on GotWoot? and Spanish, Danish, Moonspeak and 1337 / AOL talk are all discouraged. HOWEVER, I personally was thinking that because this place has a pretty good international mix, it offers some pretty good learning experience opportunities.

I was thinking of making a thread were the exception to the 'English Only' rule would not apply. People could post in English, of course, but they could also use whatever language they wanted and could talk about whatever, so long as it was either language related or in another language (sorry, no posting flames or useless trolls, I know how some of you are with 'special sections'). Regular forum rules as to spoilers and such would apply.

So, just throwing it out there. Tell me what you all think. Currently there's a (largely inactive) thread about 'How do you translate this to Japanese?' and so this would be a catch-all for that kind of thing as well.

The Proposal (subject to much change):

One thread in General Discussion where the English Only Rule would be disabled.

Posters would be able to post in English, but only to explain something about language. No random posting of unrelated stuff in English.

The overall goal / topic would be learning and teaching languages. So too many posts that try to go severely off-topic (spam posting in another language, for example) will get you a warning if it seems that you're trying to derail the thread and/or spam up your post count.

All other forum rules apply.

In sum: Many languages, one thread, goal to learn/teach languages, other forum rules apply, no spamming.

Sounds fun. I like learning new language. We could atleast try it.

As you all probably now just by reading my mistakes... I was not born in an English speaking country.
So when reading this thread, how do I react?
Is it possible to cover every language: no
which language should be chosen and why?
Is French possible, rooting for myself... and extending should we ask GW users about
what language they speak and should GW try to reflect that.

Since it's restricted to one thread, having a lot of languages won't make it easy to follow.
Plus there"s always the moderation trouble, since it"s almost impossible for a moderator to work on a post she/he doesn't know the language. Google Trad and babelfish are not a good help either.

The example you showed us is probably one of the few possibilities. It's almost always related to GW core purpose: anime and manga, and related to japanese culture.

I don't know if I can propose a derivative idea:
Would it be nice to have a view of the main places of the towns where people live and maybe to things particular to their culture. Of course this should be done safely regarding one's privacy, or rather everyone participating choosing how much of their surrondings they show.

My 2 cents ;)

A definate yes. It'll make way for some interesting exchange of information and also useful for learning short phrases from a totally foreign language. For me, I'm learning my 3rd langugage now (Japanese), so I'll have my chance to post in other languages.

Moderating might be a little tricky, but if explainations are done properly in English it should be fine.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by masamuneehs

I know I could just go ahead and make a thread for it, but I figured it couldn't hurt to gauge interest here first.

As you know, English is the official language on GotWoot? and Spanish, Danish, Moonspeak and 1337 / AOL talk are all discouraged. HOWEVER, I personally was thinking that because this place has a pretty good international mix, it offers some pretty good learning experience opportunities.

I was thinking of making a thread were the exception to the 'English Only' rule would not apply. People could post in English, of course, but they could also use whatever language they wanted and could talk about whatever, so long as it was either language related or in another language (sorry, no posting flames or useless trolls, I know how some of you are with 'special sections'). Regular forum rules as to spoilers and such would apply.

So, just throwing it out there. Tell me what you all think. Currently there's a (largely inactive) thread about 'How do you translate this to Japanese?' and so this would be a catch-all for that kind of thing as well.

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You're not clear on what you mean. Like make a thread to help people understand about different languages etc. Or do you mean we can create a thread in General Anime called: Claymore (Spanish Discussion)? If it's the latter, it's an awful idea, but if it's the former I don't see why it would be a problem.

What I understand is that you want to make a thread about "nothing" where people simply post whatever crap comes to their mind, in whatever language they want?

the idea would be that people could discuss or get better at whatever language they wanted. All of them would be in one thread, and because it would be in General Discussion, there wouldn't be a limit on what they would discuss.

I mean, making a post in a foreign language ABOUT languages isn't an easy conversation... People could learn to say/read/write whatever language they like.

added this to the first post:
The Proposal (subject to much change):

One thread in General Discussion where the English Only Rule would be disabled.

Posters would be able to post in English, but only to explain something about language. No random posting of unrelated stuff in English.

The overall goal / topic would be learning and teaching languages. So too many posts that try to go severely off-topic (spam posting in another language, for example) will get you a warning if it seems that you're trying to derail the thread and/or spam up your post count.

All other forum rules apply.

In sum: Many languages, one thread, goal to learn/teach languages, other forum rules apply, no spamming.

If it's to learn/teach a language I say go for it... could be interesting. Especially since many of the GWers are bi/tri-lingual it'll work out.

If it's about learning, teaching languages, then I suggest we focus on difficult parts of a language... or even slang and "street speech", provided it's in the rules.

Maybe for it to work, someone can ask for specific questions that are not easily covered with a google search... or where explanation are a bit difficult to understand.

For example, if someone asks for "Imparfait du subjonctif" tense in french, I understand that if every single explanation is in French only, it may be difficult to aprehend for a foreigner. Even more difficult would be the plurals for composed words...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by masamuneehs

the idea would be that people could discuss or get better at whatever language they wanted. All of them would be in one thread, and because it would be in General Discussion, there wouldn't be a limit on what they would discuss.

In sum: Many languages, one thread, goal to learn/teach languages, other forum rules apply, no spamming.

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It would be nice in the start. Though I suggest we make a new section for language. It would be easier to keep track of, e.g I would like to learn Korean, I wouldn't have to check 500+ posts. I would just visit the Korean thread.

if it was up to me, i'd have a section as well, and broken down by language. However, the focus of this place is mostly on anime and manga... we also have an... erm... proprietor... who is very big on 'trimming' the number of sections... (Read: The section would probably be deleted within a month if we made it)

I think we'd just have to tough it out with one thread.

focusing on written language, or slang even, as David suggested, would be allowed as well. But I wouldn't imagine it to be just about slang...

some of this will just have to be figured out as things go along. If there's 500 posts within a month, it might warrant its own section (but mark my words that won't come to pass), or at that point create multiple threads about the more 'talked about' languages.

Hehe I thought so. Well let's just start a thread and see how it goes ^_^

I voted "yes", this sounds like fun!

.... I don't see how this could possibly work, but it's a thread, not a section, so it's not like it concerns me all that much...

It could work...BUT only if someone would be nice to write in his own language AND in English - otherwise it would be useless. Let's say i write something in polish and none understood that, what then?

I wouldn't mind translating my posts to portuguese but i don't think there's many people interested in the language lol

Just so you know, this thread has existed for a while:

http://forums.gotwoot.net/showthread.php?t=14911

If there's enough interest, or if it ever gets bumped, one of us mods could always edit it to create a general "Translation" thread.