Xref: utzoo can.general:1786 can.politics:2798 Path: utzoo!mnetor!philmtl!zap!fortin From: fortin@zap.UUCP (Denis Fortin) Newsgroups: can.general,can.politics Subject: Re: postings in the French language Message-ID: <1151@zap.UUCP> Date: 28 Sep 89 02:08:18 GMT References: <1989Sep6.222038.2707@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> <1178@mannix.iros1.UUCP> <3837.251eb4d9@uwovax.uwo.ca> <1989Sep26.132533.12660@utzoo.uucp> <22345@looking.on.ca> Reply-To: fortin@zap.UUCP (Denis Fortin) Organization: (none), Montreal QC, Canada Lines: 34 In article <22345@looking.on.ca> brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) writes: >In fact, since nobody who doesn't read English would be reading this group, >one can only assume that posting en Francais is done to make a point. Maybe, then again maybe not. It is possible to be able to read & understand a language, but not feel comfortable enough about writing it to want to take a chance to have your ideas misinterpreted. (For example, I've noticed that a number of people respond in English to postings in French adding a note to the effect that they can understand what is written, but they are not conversant enough with French to reply in the original poster's language... That's sounds fine to me.) >Canada has two official languages, but if somebody came to you and asked >directions in English, to respond in French (when you know English) would >be rude. True.... to a certain extent. This is generally the policy that I try to follow (respond to a posting in its original language -- which is why I'm posting this in English), but then again it is conceivable that some people might feel more comfortable writing in their mother tongue even when they respond to a posting in some other language. The only risk that they expose themselves to is that the original poster might not be able to read the response -- but then again, there's nothing so terrible about that (I'd object if somebody was using a foreign language to insult or attack somebody who could not respond, but in all other cases, it would most probably not matter). Actually, I have had conversations with people where I spoke French and they spoke English, and it ended up working pretty well (I'll admit it's fairly rare, but it's happened to me on a few occasions). -- Denis Fortin, | fortin@zap.uucp CAE Electronics Ltd | uunet!philmtl!zap!fortin The opinions expressed above are my own. | fortin%zap@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu