Saturday 8 September 2007

This is the Internet

For some reason I get asked a lot why I write in English when it is not my native tongue. It is because of a lot of reasons actually:

  • I get frustrated when I browse for something and end up in pages that are in languages like French, Italian, German, Spanish and Swahili. The only time I can can see the reason in the use of French is if the sites intended audience is French children. So I don't want to frustrate people by encrypting my words in some language that hardly anyone knows.
  • I have a beef with countries that dub their movies. These countries seem to be the same who's citizens are bad at English and produce Internet content in their own Language.
  • One of the main reasons you blog is that you actually want to be read. By writing in English I expand the possible audience by quite a few people.
  • I like English and I speak it every work day because some of the people I work with are Chinese, Australian and English. So by using it I hope to improve my quality in both speech and writing.
  • I think English should be the official language on the Internet. Yes that goes for the Asian parts as well. Not because it is a better language in any way, but because it is the language that most people all over the world can understand at least a little. You could argue that Mandarin is a larger language, but I would tell you that you are totally missing the point and need to be quiet now.
  • This is not Sweden, this is the Internet.

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