In addition, I have a feeling that article overstates the English abilities of the average non-native internet user. Yes, lots of people have a very (very!) basic command of English, but that is not the same as functional bilingualism. A user may happen to know the name for a horse, but what are the chances a casual user from Peru knows the name for an anteater, a giraffe or a jellyfish?
On Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 10:58 AM, Aphaia <aph...@gmail.com> wrote: > I know a horse, but yesterday it took for me five minutes to remember > sparrows were the bird's name I would have liked to mention. . > > It helps to make this discussion helpful to some extent that native > English speakers remind it is sometimes not so easy as you the native > expect foreign learners. It's no sarcasm at all. Really. > > On Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 6:32 PM, Anthony <wikim...@inbox.org> wrote: >> On Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 9:21 AM, Gerard Meijssen >> <gerard.meijs...@gmail.com>wrote: >> >>> When you think that Commons is bad in supporting other languages, try to >>> find pictures of a horse on the internet in other languages like Estonian, >>> Nepalese ... It is not the same at all as when you are looking for images >>> in >>> English. >> >> >> Don't most Internet users know enough English to be able to search for >> "pictures of a horse" in English? >> >> (According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Internet_usage), >> yes... "Most Internet users speak the English language as a native or >> secondary language.") >> _______________________________________________ >> foundation-l mailing list >> foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org >> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l >> > > > > -- > KIZU Naoko > http://d.hatena.ne.jp/Britty (in Japanese) > Quote of the Day (English): http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/WQ:QOTD > > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l