I know there is a forum rule on SMS type messages but one of the things I have been running across ( and I am sure others have, as well) is people conversing in open to all sub forums in their own Indian language, be it Hindi or Kannada or Tamil or Bengali. Some of these turn into cliquish conversations with everyone who knows the language wanting to say their piece in that language and the rest of us don't know or understand what is being said. Unfortunately I am not fluent in any Indian language and it is my understanding that even people in India probably cannot understand or converse in the language spoken in the neighbouring state. I noticed there are region based sub-forums(people from Madras, Bombay etc) which maybe an appropriate sub forum for people to converse in their own language. Other sub forums which are targeted for people from everywhere, should be spared of these local language conversations in my personal opinion. I find them irritating at times and I also find people who converse in their own language when there are people around them who cannot understand it and they can speak in a common language (usually English) but choose not to, plain rude and lacking etiquette. Pour in your thoughts on these local language conversations.
Hi Mals I too find them annoying..suddenly in the middle of the forum someone would quote in vernacular (which is fine, once in a way!) but then there would be more people following lead, and it becomes a conversation. Plus they would actually type in their vernaculars in some forums.. I think if people feel like conversing in their local languages, then there should be separate threads for them! Oh well..
Mals, I agree. It is indeed a tad irritating, though I have not faced any such issues at IL - because I can pretty much understand the major south indian languages. I am just wondering how it would be if someone converses in french in midst of a conversation! There are seperate threads where people converse in local languages, and the problem is only when a reply in english suddenly has a inset with tamil/telegu to drive down a proverb/point etc. Arch
Oh! C'MON! Malavika, a couple of sentences in the whole post or exchanging a brief conversation is fine. It is not rude at all!! I mean I can understand if it is a full blown conversation but exchanging couple of words, quoting a proverb to drive the point are all fine. In fact, so many times I was curious to know the meaning and when I asked them they actually explained very well. So, I don't find majority of the people here rude or impolite. Pretty much, many of them here are nice to one another. So many times, when we friends meet, some of them belonging to the same region have a brief talk with one another in their own language and I am OK with it. I know they are not talking against me atleast... and many a times if I pay attention I could make out the context of the conversation atleast. For someone like you who is not comfortable with any regional languages, may find it hard to even make out the context but HEY! they are having a short talk among themselves and not ignoring you/us completely. Be a sport!! Its OK! Sometimes it is the natural instinct. And just because they are quoting a couple of sentences here and there we need not BAN THEM from the general forum!!....JMO!!!
Well Gooseberry, you may find it ok to converse in your language in presence of others who do not understand it and you can very well talk in a language everyone can understand, but it is considered rude, impolite and poor manners. As for a forum like this, I am under the assumption the common language here is English except for sub forums which cater to and target people from specific regions. In a sub forum that is open to everyone, not everyone can understand what you say in your language so it is best to put it in a language everyone can comprehend. If SMS type messages are not ok, then so should be these. People like me can make sense out of SMS type messages since they are in English. The local language conversations are total gibberish to people like me and between the two, I'd pick the SMS style messages any day.
Malavika, Even I do not agree the whole conversation in regional language especially when others do not understand but 1 or 2 sentences here and there should not be an objection.
Apart from a little half-baked Kannada, I don't understand any other South Indian language. But I honestly don't have any problems with people exchanging little snippets in their own languages. I would appreciate an approximate translation but it isn't something that puts me off. 99% of communication on IL takes place in English and I have seen moderators specifically ask posters to translate their non-English posts. Unless posters self-moderate that is about the best that can be achieved on a forum like this. I don't think anyone here posts in their own language to deliberately exclude anyone from the conversation. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and attribute it to thoughtlessness. After all English is not the first language of a majority of the people on this forum. An occasional sentence here and there is really not a big deal.
I cited the former with regards to real life situations. When you are with a friend who does not speak your language and you meet someone else who can and you start conversing with them in your language, whether you do it intentionally or unintentionally, it comes across rude and impolite for two reasons a) You are excluding them from the conversation, intentionally or unintentionally b) It could also be misinterpreted in some situations that you could be talking something not so nice about the other person. Well as for the examples here, I did not say whether it was intentional or a result of thoughtlessness. But nevertheless, it can come across annoying and irritating. And some of these is not just limited to one or two sentences. It is a whole lot of one or two sentences from almost everyone who can speak that language is what makes it annoying.
You always have the option to report it to the moderator if those occasional couple of sentences bother you..... I really cannot use the words impolite, mannerless, rude or whatever here, against posters in Indusladies website. I find majority of them most friendly sensible,level headed, smart men/women. And I am OK if some of them exchange few words in the language I don't understand as long as most of their post is in English. I wouldn't encourage someone conversing with me in my language because I know that many other posters will be lost if we both go on coolly ignoring others and I personally think that would be rude and impolite on our part. But if someone quotes a proverb or couple of sentences in their regional language in their post of more than 10-15 sentences in English and I for sure know that their intention is just to drive their point here or draw comparison in anyway, then I wouldn't consider it an issue which needs to be reported to the moderator or something for which I need to start an entirely new thread for.... Many a times, people apologised to me and explained the meaning when I told them I did not get their point (quoting their regional language sentences) Anyway, We always have the option to ignore such posts if they annoy us...don't we? So, why get so hurt by some silly things as such....JMO!!
I find kinda silly and kindergardenish to report this to a moderator LOL Yes, it irritates me a bit when suddenly the flow of a thread is diverted by a bunch of local language replies but don't know if a moderator needs to be reported on it. I certainly won't be the one reporting it and in fact I have never reported anything to any moderator so far so why start now? LOL I just started this thread to see if there are many people like me who feel the same about them. I don't care about one isolated quote someone says in a local language but some of these snowball into a big side conversation in the local language. I think my peeve is about the latter kind than the former.
