Re: language

["Jonathan Beard" jbeard@xxxxxxxx]

On Mon, 19 Oct 1998 14:52:35 +0900 (JST), Rene von Rentzell wrote:

>Carlo Caballero:
>>Adriano is very gracious in his consideration for us Anglophone
>>subscribers to XyWrite. But I would prefer to see subscribers write in the
>>language in which they are most comfortable--including Italian. In Europe
>>it is usually the custom to write a foreigner in your own language--and
>>accept your correspondent's right to do the same.
>
>
>Er det sandt? Det vidste jeg slet ikke. Nu haaber jeg bar at mine
>finske venner ikke finder ud af dette... :-)
>
>--Rene von Rentzell, Tokyo 

Since I use XyWrite 3.54 (and sometimes 4) to translate from 9
European languages into English, I will render von Rentzell into
English as: "Is this true? I was not aware of it. I sure hope that
my Finnish friends do not find out about it....:-)"

He is right that this custom is not equilateral. Danes, Norwegians
and Swedes can correspond in this manner among themselves, and
perhaps French and Spanish might be widely accepted. But I know that
for those whose native language is Portuguese, Dutch or Greek, much
less Finnish, this does not work with any partner. Jonathan
Jonathan D. Beard
Science Writer-Photo Researcher
 820 West End Ave 3B
NY, NY 10025-5328 tel: (212) 280-2798
jbeard@xxxxxxxx