Re: Colloquial language [Re: Last Call: <draft-hoffman-tao4677bis-15.txt> (The Tao of IETF: A Novice's Guide to the Internet Engineering Task Force) to Informational RFC]

[Ole Jacobsen <[e-mail]>]

On Thu, 31 May 2012, Brian E Carpenter wrote:

> On 2012-05-31 02:49, Peter Saint-Andre wrote:
> > 
> > That said, I would assume that many potential readers of this document
> > are not native English speakers. Thus I suggest that the more colloquial
> > words and phrases might best be changed to more standard English.
> 
> Have we any evidence that this is a problem for the community? The informal
> style is one of the virtues of the Tao. I'd be sorry to lose it.

"Informal style" does not equal heavy use of (localized) 
colloquialisms. My copy editor always reminds me that I have an 
international readership and thus should avoid such phrases as the 
ones listed by Peter.

> 
> Maybe we can ask some of the people concerned, such as recent presenters
> of the Newcomers tutorial in languages other than English.

Sounds like a difficult thing to do with any kind of predictable or 
measurable outcome, although it might be fun to ask the Brits if they
understand everything the Americans are saying and vice versa :-)

"Having evindence" that someone did not understand a particular phrase
gets into the weeds of cultural differences which go way beyond a 
group of engineers who don't understand the meaning of "approximately".
I suggest we NOT conduct that particular line of questioning, really.

> 
>     Brian
> 


Ole J. Jacobsen 
Editor and Publisher,  The Internet Protocol Journal
Cisco Systems
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