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]

[Melinda Shore <[e-mail]>]

On 5/31/12 1:05 AM, Klaas Wierenga wrote:
> As a non-native speaker I agree. I think colloquial is fine. The one
> thing causes me some trouble is all the references that Americans make
> to sports that nobody in the civilized world cares about ;-) ("left
> field", "Hail Mary passes" etc.) But I think the Tao pretty much avoids
> those (perhaps "Home base" is the exception).

A previous employer's HR team put together training material
for those of us who were helping with university recruiting and
it was one extended American football metaphor.  Since nearly
all the engineers who were volunteering were Indian or Chinese
it turned out to be more confusing than effective (and not
necessarily understandable by North American nerds, either).

I tend to use a lot of idiomatic language when I write but I
do understand the issues around use of regional idioms, and I
note that so far of the non-native speakers who've commented,
all are either European or Israeli.  I'm wondering if regional
idioms are as clear to people from east, southeast, and south
Asian countries.  Also, for whatever it's worth, the English
idioms under discussion all seem to be American.

Melinda