2004-08-30 - + 0 - 0 Thoughts on language
Linus has started up his blog now, and as he's saying, it's in English and not Swedish. Many times I have been thinking in a similar way: here we have this global Internet, where I can talk to people from all the world, and I choose to limit my webpage to those fortunate enough to know Swedish. That's just stupid, because it's not as if I can't write in English. It's just... I'm just lazy.There's a few points to be made:
- Point: Dude, only friends and family read your blog anyway!
Yeah, but it doesn't have to be that way. I have some interesting things to say. Can't think of any at the moment, though. - Point: Not everyone on the Internet understand English.
No, but more than Swedish, and those are the two languages I know. Also, the people who understand Swedish make a subset of those who understand English. Call it culture imperialism, but in my opinion English is the best candidate for a future global language. However, the English spelling and grammar should be rationalized so everyone can learn it quickly. Yeah! I remember seeing some Simplified English Project but I can't seem to googla fram the right page at the moment. - Point: Your English is less than perfect and you're using Swedishisms.
Good point, but I don't care. And I don't think anyone should. If you're making yourself understood, you're using good language (the Fredrik Lindström hypothesis). - Point: Some things you write about are irrelevant to non-Swedes.
Yes. For example, I'd like to plug Betapet, the best Swedish scrabble site since NISSE became a silly paysite (Betapet looks better anyway). But maybe that's of interest to a few non-Swedish-speakers too? Who knows?
Conclusion: We'll see. I have plans to rename this blog to "Simons navel" and dedicate it to ridiculous stuff, and then start another blog called "psykoblog" that will be more serious, about psychology studies and shit. Maybe one or both of those will be in English. I also want to start a mp3blog called "Lungan". And bloggify Twee Kamelen and Kulturföreningen Hörnan.
20 kommentarer:
The terrorists have won.
Jöns (link) - 2004-08-30 - 19:58
All your blogs are belong to us.
John R Chang (email) (link) - 2004-08-30 - 20:09
heh no they belongs to me omg lol
puterman - 2004-08-30 - 20:44
Oh my God! Rolling on the floor laughing out loud, peeing my pants, reading the fucking manual!
Simon - 2004-08-31 - 00:48
Welcome to my blog I kiss you!
mats (email) (link) - 2004-08-31 - 20:27
psykoblog yes!
anything - 2004-08-31 - 21:54
I’ve drawn pretty much the same conclusions as Simon when it comes to language. I’ve worked hard on my English, and I consider myself bilingual. Swedish is spoken by less than ten million people. English, in some form, is understood by hundreds of millions.
The internet highlights the need for a global language, and English (perhaps somewhat unfortunately) looks like a real winner.
Using English as a “working language” makes a lot of sense. Let’s unite and build ourselves a tower to God!
Magnus - 2004-09-03 - 00:04
Aj do nåt kånsidder dö staff disskusst ånn majj päjdjis inträstin får mår dan svids. Batt pärhapps ö mikkstjör vär dö slajtli mår pråfessjånal psajkoblågg iss in inglisch and dö prajvöt in svidisch? Elelr jag vet inte.
Enar (link) - 2004-09-03 - 16:57
Och engelska är desutom ett töntigt språk som är i slutet av sina glansdagar. Satsa på spanska redan nu om ni vill nå folk. Esperanto kan ni glömma, jag tror det är fler som talar tHlingan-hol.
Enar - 2004-09-03 - 16:59
I’m going to begin writing half of my blog in Chinese, since it’s soon the most important language. Or maybe not…
Jöns - 2004-09-03 - 22:52
Magnus: Word, brother!
Enar: that’s a pretty strange thing to say! Your pages are full of interesting thoughts on universal topics such as religion and politics. Why would that not be interesting to nonswedes? (of course, I’m not blaming you for writing in Swedish, actually I think it’s a good thing that there’s Swedish on the web. I’m just arguing against that particular argument.) Also “satsa på spanska” is kind of moot, I have no time to learn a new language. And I like English. I like Esperanto too. It’s a cool language.
Jöns: Are you serious? That would be pretty cool.
Simon - 2004-09-04 - 15:39
Okej, slarvigt uttryckt av mig. Blir lätt så på engelska 
Äh, jag bara tyckte att att internet är tillräckligt fullt av folk som skriver på engelska “så att alla som besöker min as-spännande sida om mitt vanliga tråkiga liv förstår”. Inte för att just din sida skulle vara särdeles tråkig, iallafall inte tråkigare än min, men på nått sätt känns det ändå lite spännigt med engelska. Mina tre-fyra första år på oäbbän var på engelska, till dess att jag märkte att de som verkligen läser mestadels är kusiner, kamrater och en och annan strövare.
Vad gäller poängen med att skriva på något kinesiskt språk, ser jag den inte. Det kan ju knappast sägas vara särskilt spritt, ens jämfört med engelskan. Spanska däremot är på väg uppåt där engelskan är på väg ner.
Enar - 2004-09-07 - 14:47
And yeah, please feel free to continue the debate in the Queen´s English. It is not my intention to force this discussion-amongst-swedes-wrtiting-in-english into swedish. I do not doubt that you perhaps can be right.
Enar - 2004-09-07 - 14:50
Well… Jo, det kan indeed kännas lite krystat med engelska. BUT there IS a big point in writing in English, år spänish, år kinesiska, år svidish, år whatever you feel comfortable with and have an inspiration for writing in. It’s more fun to compute. I write lyrics and little songs sometimes. Sometimes, they come to me in Swedish and are untranslatable to English. Sometimes, vice versa. Thoughts arrive in the form of Swedish most of the time. But I like writing in English. It’s more fun to compute.
My ideal web page would be multilingual, choosing the right language automatically as per web standards. Blog entries could be written in one or many languages. My friend Alex http://www.hurtado.se/ has a nice web page in English, Swedish and Spanish.
Simon (link) - 2004-09-07 - 16:17
> Vad gäller poängen med att skriva på något kinesiskt språk, ser jag den inte. Det kan ju knappast sägas vara särskilt spritt, ens jämfört med engelskan.
Det kommer! Det kommer!
Jöns - 2004-09-08 - 14:34
Simon:
> My ideal web page would be multilingual, choosing the right language automatically as per web standards. Blog entries could be written in one or many languages. My friend Alex http://www.hurtado.se/ has a nice web page in English, Swedish and Spanish.
But didn’t you say that idea was “fucked up”?
Jöns - 2004-09-08 - 16:37
Jöns: Yes, I suppose I did. What’s your point, dude?
Simon (link) - 2004-09-08 - 21:12
> Jöns: Yes, I suppose I did. What’s your point, dude?
My point is: do you like the idea or not?
Jöns - 2004-09-09 - 10:15
It’s more fun to compute. Indeed. But how does this Hurtado guy do? Does he write everything trice? Impressive.
Enar - 2004-09-09 - 10:50
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wagering (email) (link) - 2005-04-03 - 01:15