[Python-ideas] Clearer communication

[Paul Moore]

On Sat, 2 Feb 2019 at 13:55, Adrien Ricocotam <ricocotam at gmail.com> wrote:
> Just a point about writing clear and precise English. For a good part of the audience and the writers, English is not our native language. Even if I’m considered good in English according to the standards in France, will far from being bilingual and expressing myself in English is not that easy. Technical discussions are not easy, no matter the language. Using a different language is harder and makes it really difficult some times. That’s why, in my case, I felt I mis expressed myself and proposed explanations on the answers I gave : I thought that was not clear because I’m not English-speaker.

One point I will make - for myself (and maybe for the other native
English speakers here) I find it really hard to determine when someone
here is not a native speaker, basically because in general their
English is so good that it's hard to tell! (I certainly couldn't
communicate in any way effectively in French, which is the only
language I could even claim to have a basic grasp of outside of
English). So I'm sure some misunderstandings come from simply assuming
people meant what they said, when in fact they were trying to say
something slightly different, but didn't realise the nuances.

It's hard to know what to do about this. As an English speaker I try
to remember that not everyone is a native speaker, but being able to
communicate effectively in another language *at all* is sufficiently
foreign to my experience that I can't really understand the
implications of being in that position. And expecting non-native
speakers to continually remind us that they are speaking in a language
other than their native one is unreasonable - not least because they
are communicating better than many native speakers (in my experience).

I guess the best answer is the usual one - assume good faith on
everyone's part, and forgive minor inaccuracies. Also, while pedantic
precision is common in technical discussions (and speaking for myself,
something I often overindulge in for the fun of it...) it's better
avoided in discussions on the list, where the fine distinctions
involved may be lost on other participants.

Paul