Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Drea <drea_@***.NET>
Subject: Re: Languages (Long, so sorry)
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 10:59:35 -0500
<<<<<

> I happen to live in the States as well and am seeing the trend as well.
> This is part of that which leads to my assumption that those in the UCAS
> will also have to learn a second language.

I disagree. And let me say why. While more people may study and
learn a language; they then go on to live their lives in the USA with little
contact with native speakers of the language they studied. This means skill
goes down and becomes based on outdated modes of speach. Americans are one
of
the most isolated people in the world. We import almost nothing of world
culture
and travel outside our borders very little save for short tourist hits among
the well off.
Until we become more culturally open; second language skills will
not
prosper. They'll atrophy from lack of sufficient use.


>>>>>


I think that I really have to disagree, Brian. Of course, this is how my
view of Shadowrun is different, so it probably doesn't apply to yours, yada
yada. Anyway, moving on. The way that I see it, the society of 2060+ is
global - you will come into contact with native speakers of the languages
you learn. More than likely repeatedly. While America is now a very
segregated place language wise, I feel that with the emergence of the new
countries within our borders, the emphasis on communication (necessary for a
global society) would counter the kind of ignorance that is prevalent today.
Also, there are many programs in place even in schools today that not only
teach the language, but the culture as well, and through the advancements in
place along the information super highway, learning new things and keeping
up to date with changes within those cultures will be far easier. Let's
face it, we've got companies in 2060 that have their own territories, and
they have to keep up with other companies, and their native languages, just
to stay competitive, not to mention the mergers, etc that would be going on
all over the place.
As for the bit about icons - while yes, it is possible to break down an
entire language into meaningful graphics, these would slowly become a
language unto themselves - all characters of all languages were brought
about this way - by putting ideas to forms, to characters, and then to words
and writing, this is how languages evolve. Someday we'll all be speaking
Nettisse, eh?
English is one of the most common languages in use today - to fly an
aircraft, you must speak it. It may be egotistical of us, but that's the
way it is. I won't go in to why English seems so prevalent, but it is often
the language of choice for many people who want to communicate on a global
scale. Nearly every business website located in a country where the native
language is not English will have an English mirror if they expect to do
business worldwide.
In a world like SR, where there are hundreds of different cultures all
thrust into one place and clashing with each other, it's entirely possible
that the spoken word would be more prevalent than the written type (just
look at Spanglish). While speaking in a tongue not your own, you may be
fluent, able to carry on a conversation face to face, but once confronted
with the writing, you could become confused. It's illiteracy, and it
happens all the time. I knew a guy named Vick who could speak English and
Spanish quite well, couldn't write or read English beyond the fifth grade
level, and couldn't write or read Spanish better than your average 5 year
old. In a case such as this, the SR rule of half your speaking skill is
reading is just about right.
However ( and if anyone's read this far, I am quite proud of you. :) ), I
think that the language skill should be malleable in regards to a
character's background. For instance, you might be able to write a
language, but not speak it. So you'd have to work with the numbers for that
one. In the case of a character's native tongue, I say for your normal
character, they ought to read and write at about the same level. And that's
the bottom line, cause Stone Cold - ack, damn brain. That's my 2 £.
If all of this has been said before, I apologize, I've been working out my
email and have been unsubbed for a few days (weeks?)

Pink`

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Languages (Long, so sorry), you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.