Site language policy

[dtcamero]

20 hours ago, Lu said:

Hi @龙行天下, thanks for your reply. Next time, could you perhaps write in English? Many of our members are not very good at Chinese yet.

 

 

is it actually the policy of this board that every reply must be written in english? i appreciate that OP deserves an explanation in english, of which there were several. but having a reply in native chinese is also a valuable resource (for others if not only for OP)...

 

also demarcating the board as an english-only zone seems a bit authoritarian not to mention counter to the original intention as a place to learn this language that we're saying shouldn't be written here.

 

my two mao ✌️

[imron]

11 hours ago, dtcamero said:

is it actually the policy of this board that every reply must be written in english?

Yes.  From the Terms and Conditions

 

Quote

This is an English-language forum about Chinese. Posts and their titles should be mostly in English, except in sections specifically for practicing Chinese. Obviously the use of some Chinese is necessary for examples, etc, but a non-speaker of Chinese should still be able to understand the purpose of your post.

 

There's a fair amount of leeway (hence the reason the post is still up, rather than just being deleted), but generally speaking it doesn't do any good for a beginner to ask a question in English and then get a wall of Chinese text that they can't read as a reply.  Now it might well be that Napkat is perfectly fine reading and understanding the reply, but, he's not the only one reading this thread and there are likely beginner learners also reading who aren't sure about how to use 倒 either and who benefit from mostly English responses.

 

There is Chinese Corner for people who want to communicate entirely in Chinese, but it doesn't get much usage.

[imron]

12 hours ago, dtcamero said:

also demarcating the board as an english-only zone seems a bit authoritarian not to mention counter to the original intention as a place to learn this language that we're saying shouldn't be written here.

Note also that it's not an English *only* zone and neither is it forbidden to write Chinese.  The rules don't state that, and Lu's post didn't either.

[roddy]

Split this off as I wanted to add my own two pennies worth. 

 

There's a long-standing policy that posts should be accessible to people who can't read Chinese. That doesn't mean everything has to be in English all the time, but I see little value in an entry-level student getting a reply in native-level Chinese. In those cases we'd request further posts are made in English. I don't think we're authoritarian about it - Lu's request seems perfectly friendly to me, nobody got banned, and there's plenty of leeway - a similar post by a regular member we know usually posts in English might not have been commented upon (on occasion I've just provided my own translation). This was a new member who understandably might not know how we work.

 

I think of it as "about Chinese, in English."