What's the best 'weblanguage'?

[Elledan]

We all know that the people on this planet use more than just 10 languages
As long as those people stay on the same place it's not a problem, but when they go 'on the web' you'll get into trouble if you don't understand the language a site is written in. Just imagine the chaos if everybody knew just one language!

At the start of the commercial internet, English was the most used language, and it still is, but more and more sites are in a different language than English. People also use different languages in chatboxes and so.

Now is my question: "Should English become/stay the standard language on the Internet?"

I'm looking forward to your replies!

Greetings,



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Elledan Dunedain
http://emudreams.tsx.org
TriAxis (Still Alpha!)
Everyone has a destiny in life. Some just never reach it

[goter]

hey

i don't think the internet should have a standard language. the internet is used by people all over the world. not everyone speaks english. not everyone wants to speak english. the internet enables people from different cultures from all other the world to share ideas and communicate. making english the standard net language makes the internet less culturally diverse.

why does the internet need a standard language?

- goter

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http://www.tophatmonkey.gq.nu
tophatmonkey@tophatmonkey.gq.nu

[Sparkie]

As a foreign language major, I deliver an enthusiastic and emphatic NO to that question

The world wide web is just that - "world wide" and the fact that we can communicate with our neighbors in the nearst and farthest continents in a fraction of time, makes the need for one standard "internet language" seem awfully narrow-minded.

The beauty of the internet is that it has no limitations on age, gender, race or language.



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Sparkie - SitePoint Moderator
www.pawsitronic.com - Your One-Stop Web Design Solution!
ICQ# 82621206 MSN: sparkiecat@hotmail.com

[Elledan]

I DON'T suggest that anyone should speak one language to EVERYONE, but I mean between people with different languages.

A good example is right here on this forum: We all are typing English, right? So on this forum the people from Russia, Belgium, Netherlands , France, Germany and all other countries can NOT possible communicate with each other without using just ONE (1) language everyone understands. And they use all English.

THAT is the question. Is it good we're all using English? Is English the best language?

I'd say yes, English is the best language for the web since everything that has soemthing to do with computers IS English, no doubt about that.

For the records: What I tried to explain is that a 'weblanguage' is a language that 'connects' people who don't speak each other's language and therefore use one common language.

Understood? Or do I've got to re-explain it a second time? I promise that I'll go nuts if anyone asks...

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Elledan Dunedain
http://emudreams.tsx.org
TriAxis (Still Alpha!)
Everyone has a destiny in life. Some just never reach it

[CJ]

Hello,

I believe that English is definatley the best language to communicate on the web.

It is the easiest language to learn (I've done 5 so I know what I'm talking about). It is very logical because there are not much exceptions to the grammatic rules.

Christophe

ps: in reallife I speak Dutch



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[TWTCommish]

The question is a bit odd: "should english be the standard" doesn't make much sense. "Should?" There's nothing it "should" be...it'll be whatever the majority remains as...English for the time being.

I think it's fairly obvious that people will have basic translators built into their browsers at some point...much simpler in my opinion than having people write sites in multiple languages.



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Chris Bowyer – chris@mycoding.com
MyCoding.com: Visit for Launch Notification!
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[Dan Grossman]

It's no different than the real world out here. You speak the language you speak, you read the language you know!

Everyone can create webpages in their own language, or others if they want to reach those audiences. If someone wants to communicate with others in a forum like this and they speak Russian, they can find a forum on another Russian site in which people speaking Russian participate. If there are none, they can either:

Be the first and make one..
or.. not use the forum.

Unfortunate for some, but that's how it is. English is definitely the most common language on the internet, because English-speaking countries have the largest number of people participating on the web right now. While other major countries like China or Japan will soon have the same number or more, many of their users stick to sites and communities built by their own people, just as much as most Americans stick to US-based sites.

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Dan Grossman (webmaster@webdevportal.com)
http://www.webdevportal.com -
The customizable portal for webmasters!

[Dan Grossman]

And, by the way, the best 'weblanguage' is HTML! It communicates in all languages.

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Dan Grossman (webmaster@webdevportal.com)
http://www.webdevportal.com -
The customizable portal for webmasters!

[aspen]

Well you can look at it like this, the syntax in most programming languages involves English.

However also consider the following points.

I'd wager that the majority of internet users in the world are from the US (stupid americans)

A good portion of those not from the US are from AU or UK.

So you have a good portion of the people online who speak English as their first language.

Then consider that the US education system is really bad and you find very few multilingual US citizens. Whereas it seems to me most Europeans and Asians are Multilingual with English being one of the extra languages.

So, English is the language everyone uses. And that is evident fact, you can go to website from sweden or russia and they'll be in english, or they'll have 2 versions, 1 in each language.

Chris

[Elledan]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote/font><HR>Originally posted by WebDevPortal:
And, by the way, the best 'weblanguage' is HTML! It communicates in all languages.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hehe... You're totally right, WebDev

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Elledan Dunedain
http://emudreams.tsx.org
TriAxis (Still Alpha!)
Everyone has a destiny in life. Some just never reach it

[CJ]

Als ik nu hier nederlands zou beginnen praten zou niemand van jullie mij verstaan behalve elledan.

Wenn ich Deutsch würde sprechen würde auch niemand mich verstehen. Vielleicht gibts ja einige die es wol können.

Quand je parle le français, quelques personnes pouvaient me comprendre.

But when I speak english everyone here understands me. So the choice for me is made rather quickly....

Christophe

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[TWTCommish]

Showoff...

Like I said; we'll have translators built into our browsers shortly; it's the only solution that truly makes sense...rather than asking people to learn other languages and/or build sites in them.



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Chris Bowyer – chris@mycoding.com
MyCoding.com: Visit for Launch Notification!
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[Hierophant]

SquareSoft, the makers of the popular Final Fantasy Series, have a translation engine in development. You might be asking why a video game company would be mentioned here.

The SquareSoft engine is meant to provide a online, realtime Virtual Game World for their Final Fantasy XI project (yes FFIX (PSX) and FFX (PSX2) are completed before you ask. ). This engine is supposed to translate between all major languages realtime over the net. SquareSoft has plans for it not only in online games but for business and other general uses as well. I believe the production model they are using now can translate between Japanese and English over an Instant Message format with ease. Basically what happens is the Sender types in Japanese and the receiver sees English or vice versa. As I said they plan on supporting all major languages eventually including Swahili. There is no reason why this technology when it is finished can not be used for browsers as well.

The United Nations and some members of the United States military assigned to peacekeeping operations are also testing audio devices that work as universal translators. So automatic translation will probably happen in the next decade on the commercial level.

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Wayne Luke - Sitepoint Forums Administrator
Digital Magician Magazine - MetaQuark Creations (Coming Soon)
wayne@sitepoint.com

[Elledan]

Sounds pretty cool!

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Elledan Dunedain
http://emudreams.tsx.org
TriAxis (Still Alpha!)
Everyone has a destiny in life. Some just never reach it

[CJ]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote/font><HR>Originally posted by TWTCommish:
Showoff...

Like I said; we'll have translators built into our browsers shortly; it's the only solution that truly makes sense...rather than asking people to learn other languages and/or build sites in them.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Translation engines will never be as advanced as the 'human brain'. They ALWAYS bring errors because every language has words which can be used for several things.

Like a 'copy' can mean several other words in dutch.

Therefore I think search engines will not take in a big place in our society. If someone has to learn something he will. I had to learn english too to understand everything here. Worked out pretty well.

Translation engines will also slow down our computers and internet connection. Not everybody works on state-of-the-art 900 mhz systems with 286 RAM and a 90 GB big hard drive...

Christophe



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[aspen]

Dont forget all the slang like kewl d00d and all that other garbage that people on the internet seem so apt to use.

Chris

[richjb]

Correct me if I'm wrong, as I have not studied many foreign languages in the past, but English does seem to have many exceptions to the "rules."

English started as a form of German (OLD), and through the years as other nations claimed dominance over England (such as that portrayed in Ivanhoe) the language evolved. Also note that one could say that we took much of our grammatical rules from Latin. Thus, one could call English an evolved language of OLD German with Latin grammatical structuring (as I have often heard).

Please realize that what is spoken here would be noted as American English, and is probably not as close to "actual" English as one might think.

For an enlightening short history of the Enlgish language, visit the Merriam-Webster dictionary website at:
http://www.m-w.com/about/look.htm

Another thing, by the time that the browser translators arrive to the general public, the description made by freesources of a computer system, will be by FAR outdated.

Richard
richjb::417

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richard@brevig.com

[Hierophant]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote/font><HR>
Translation engines will also slow down our computers and internet connection. Not everybody works on state-of-the-art 900 mhz systems with 286 RAM and a 90 GB big hard drive...
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

But if it can be developed for the PSX2 which is a much less powerful machine, it can be built for a PC. The translations systems available now are not perfect but they are a step in the right direction, Babelfish is probably one of the best examples of putting technology to work for you. Of course they won't ever be perfect but neither is human speech. But they sure will be a much better tool than tourist translation and key phrases dictionaries.

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Wayne Luke - Sitepoint Forums Administrator
Digital Magician Magazine - MetaQuark Creations (Coming Soon)
wayne@sitepoint.com

[Elledan]

I've used BabelFish a few times, to translate French sites and I must say that it works almost flawless. Only a few sentences in a long text were unreadable, further no complains.

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Elledan Dunedain
http://emudreams.tsx.org
TriAxis (Still Alpha!)
Everyone has a destiny in life. Some just never reach it

[bealte]

Even if ALL languages die ENGLISH will still sirvive. If someone speak ONLY one language on the web then it is ENGLISH. English is not my mother tongue, though I speak English, Spanish, and Russian. English R U L E S!

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote/font><HR>Originally posted by Elledan:
We all know that the people on this planet use more than just 10 languages
As long as those people stay on the same place it's not a problem, but when they go 'on the web' you'll get into trouble if you don't understand the language a site is written in. Just imagine the chaos if everybody knew just one language!

At the start of the commercial internet, English was the most used language, and it still is, but more and more sites are in a different language than English. People also use different languages in chatboxes and so.

Now is my question: "Should English become/stay the standard language on the Internet?"

I'm looking forward to your replies!

Greetings,

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>



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george sazandrishvili

BEALTE WEB STUDIO
http://www.bealte.com
george@bealte.com