Kommentti aiheesta "Miksi en saa aikaiseksi ainuttakaan kansainvälistä artikkelia?"

Kotuksen sivuilla ilmestyi mainio Olli Löyttyn puheenvuoro otsikolla "Miksi en saa aikaiseksi ainuttakaan kansainvälistä artikkelia?" Ja tähän tuli runsaasti hyviä kommentteja.

Koska monessa kommentissa käsiteltiin englanniksi kirjoittamisen haastetta, päätin kokeilla kirjoittaa oman kommenttini englanniksi, ihan vain nähdäkseni miltä ajatukseni näyttävät toisella kielellä.

Kommenttia ei siellä kuitenkaan julkaistu, perusteena kieli:

Pyydän keskustelijoita ystävällisesti muistamaan, että Kotus-blogissa käytetään keskustelukielenä suomea. Esimerkiksi englanninkielisiä puheenvuoroja ei julkaista, vaikka ne muuten asiallisia olisivatkin.

Ei siinä mitään, ihan hyvä sääntö tuokin on. Alla kuitenkin kommenttini sellaisena kuin sen Kotuksen sivuille kirjoitin.

The original posting and the comments made me think about a) potential differences between individuals in using a non-native language when thinking and writing, and b) the effect of the perceived audience on writing.

The question of variety in how people are able to use English as a foreign or second language seems to be such an obvious one that there must exist a lot of studies on this. Maybe someone can comment on this, but from personal (anecdotal) experience I have seen differences that can be quite drastic.

However, at the same time, I feel that using English sometimes helps in communication, as it forces one to question terminology, issues of cultural background, etc., and makes one more aware of potential misunderstandings.

Sometimes we are blind to things we take for granted, and using English can make one more aware of the reasoning and the problems with it.

And then there is the audience, those with whom we think we are communicating with. Switching to English isn’t all that straightforward, as there are many potential communities, many of them using English as working language, all with differences in how they use the language (terminology, problem-setting, etc.).

Some things can be very hard for a non-native. As an example, one can raise the question whether the practice of following the basic structure of an scientific article and then putting in the details of a particular research topic is a form of plagiarism or not. One could say that following the existing conventions helps the reader to follow the logic, but one could also claim that this is very unoriginal writing.

As a final point, even though the native English speaker may have an initial advantage when people use English as a lingua franca, this may be a handicap as well, as many English idioms etc. are not understood by non-native users of the language.

And there is also the fact the some of the worst English language texts have been written by native English speakers.