>Could I suggest that, as a matter of
>courtesy, (as opposed to law) responses to posts be in the language of the post to
>which they respond. In that way a discussion begun in any language will be
>continued and completed in that language. Then no one following a thread will be
>left in the dark on some important point.
Let me suggest an alternative: perhaps the first person who is competent to translate a foreign-language post relatively quickly could do so, making it easier for those who do not speak a particular language.
For that matter, when people who are not native speakers of Latin, Hebrew, or Aramaic post quotes in those languages, it would be useful if they also posted a translation for those like me who do not read these languages.
Reading knowledge of a language and writing knowledge are two different things, particularly for people who are embarrased when they make grammatical mistakes in public forums. Daniel, who has posted in Spanish a few times, obviously reads English quite well (as well as German, Latin, and Greek, to judge by his posts), but prefers to write in Spanish. He has really good things to say, so it would be very useful if someone would translate his posts, but why make him write in a foreign language? Most of us are much more articulate in our native languages.
>By the way, I don't know anyone who knows Spanish. Would it be out of line to ask
>if someone would translate the post in question into English and post it to the
>list? If Spanish is going to become a prerequisite for this list I'm (sadly) out
>in the cold.
It would be great to have any or all of Daniel's posts translated, since he says some really good things. I'm not certain that I understand every sentence completely, so I'm not the guy to do it (I never learned Spanish, but it is close enough to my bad French that I can sort of decipher it with difficulty). By the way, allowing people to post in their native language is not the same as making that language a prerequisite for the list.
Jonathan