From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1761352AbXGOSWT (ORCPT ); Sun, 15 Jul 2007 14:22:19 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1756010AbXGOSWH (ORCPT ); Sun, 15 Jul 2007 14:22:07 -0400 Received: from terminus.zytor.com ([198.137.202.10]:55810 "EHLO terminus.zytor.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755938AbXGOSWG (ORCPT ); Sun, 15 Jul 2007 14:22:06 -0400 Message-ID: <469A6370.4020404@zytor.com> Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2007 11:12:00 -0700 From: "H. Peter Anvin" User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.0 (X11/20070419) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Li Yang CC: Rob Landley , Gerrit Huizenga , "Kunai, Takashi" , holzheu@linux.vnet.ibm.com, Andrew Morton , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, lf_kernel_messages@linux-foundation.org, mtk-manpages@gmx.net, jack@suse.cz, randy.dunlap@oracle.com, gregkh@suse.de, pavel@ucw.cz, tim.bird@am.sony.com, arjan@infradead.org, sam@ravnborg.org, jengelh@computergmbh.de, joe@perches.com, auke-jan.h.kok@intel.com, hansendc@us.ibm.com, davem@davemloft.net, Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu, kenistoj@us.ibm.com, schwidefsky@de.ibm.com, heiko.carstens@de.ibm.com, linux-doc@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [PATCH] Chinese Language Maintainer References: <989B956029373F45A0B8AF0297081890F05F2F@zch01exm26.fsl.freescale.net> <200707121205.20959.rob@landley.net> <1184330583.23373.65.camel@Gundam> <200707131352.12952.rob@landley.net> In-Reply-To: X-Enigmail-Version: 0.95.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Li Yang wrote: > > I think you worried too much about this problem. :) Let me explain > the situation here in China more clearly. Actually, English is > mandatory in most schools and universities. Only very few people > learn other language as a second language. Therefore software > developers who are almost educated should have the basic English > skill. However, that doesn't mean that they can read English or > communicate with native English speaker very easily. Consider your > second language learn in school for analogy. Actually, I disagree. English *is* the second language learned in school for most European developers (except, obviously, the ones from the British isles), and we don't have that problem. > Read in English will be much slower and more likely to cause > misunderstanding. This will > reduce the likelihood greatly of English documentation being read. If > we are promoting contribution to the Linux community, we should > maximum the possibility that these key documents being read. > Translation will serve this purpose very well. What we have found in Europe, is that that it has limited value, and that the closer to the core you are, the less value it is, because at that stage you should be communicating more with other developers. Putting yourself behind a wall of translation is unfortunately a detriment in that way. -hpa