Some Thoughts About the Unequal Language Distribution on the Internet
Does knowledge and information (really) matter? The Big Mac index (published by the economist) is about the price differences of the Big Mac at different places around the world. You can read all about this at the site of the economist. In English. But this article is not about the purchasing power parity of which the Big Mac index is an example. This is about the information and knowledge behind the Big Mac Index. Information that is unequally distributed. In 1998, 70 percent of the Internet websites were in English, followed by the German language at only 7 percent. Less than one percent was in Chinese (source www.netz-tipp.de). Who will benefit most from this unequal distribution; citizens from countries like China, Japan, Russia, India and the Arabic countries? Or people from the English “focused” countries? If Content matters, and all you writing and reading ezinearticles should support the hypothesis, than the benefits are for those countries where English is like a second language, open for most people – at least for everybody connected, but in a one way direction. Only, that is for people who do not master Chinese... In the area of information and knowledge, the Chinese, Russians, Japanese, etc... have a competitive advantage over English speaking countries, just because they can retrieve information and knowledge, but we cannot retrieve information in exchange. An unequal trade-balance? In 2000, the distribution changed somehow. According to the internet society (http://www.isoc.org) “only” 56% of the websites were in English and already 2.4% where Chinese. I mention China, just for the sake of the example. “So what? ...what’s in it for me?” For the moment probably nothing. But just imagine the leaders and leading countries of tomorrow? Who will they be? And what will this mean for western economies? Some search engines investigate in the automatic translation services for different languages. And some languages are already feasible when translating from English. But this makes the distribution even worse. By the way. Where do you think you can buy the cheapest Big Mac? © 2006 Hans Bool Hans Bool is the founder of Astor White a traditional management consulting company that offers online management advice. Astor Online solves issues in hours what normally would take days. You can apply for a free demo account |
Other Articles
Language And Its Usage By Both People And Animals Language can be considered the major characteristic which separates man from other living creatures. For Descartes 'it is a very remarkable thing that there are no men so dull and stupid, not even lunatics, that they cannot arrange various words and form a sentence to make their thoughts understood; but no other animal, however perfect or well b ...Second Language Acquisition in Adult Learners In our previous mini-article entitled "Language Acquisition vs. Language Learning" we mentioned an important distinction in the way in which children acquire their mother tongue naturally, by means of meaningful interactions with their parents in which the focus of every single exchange is communicative in nature.Adults, in contrast, when ...Learn Spanish Online Don’t have the time or patience to attend class? Despair not! Many sources on the Internet are available which allow for an in-depth learning of Spanish. It is suitable for learners at any level. One can take the time to use dictionaries and other resources to work on writing and grammar, while studying from the comfort of one’s home or office. ...A Guide to Malaga Real Estate Malaga real estate has increased in popularity in recent years. People from all over Northern Europe have been purchasing properties here. The discount airlines operating at the Alicante airport have made it easier and cheaper to visit frequently.Malaga Real Estate MarketThe demand for real estate in Malaga, Spain has increased in ...Speaking Each Other's Language Two of the leading issues needing urgent attention in our world are the environment and proper communication between two major opposing cultures. From these dual problems stem many other concerns.The environment is a dilemma, about which we can all do something; we just need to curb our greed and laziness. British entrepreneur Sir Richard ..."Broken Greek: A Language to Belong" by Adrianne Kalfopoulou: Book Review Broken Greek: A Language to Belong by Adrianne Kalfopoulou Plain View Press (2006) ISBN 9781891386565 Reviewed by Beverly Pechin for Reader Views (8/06)“Broken Greek” is truly an inside view of the real Greece. As both an 'outsider' and 'one of them', author Adrianne Kalfopoulou gives a unique look at Gree ...The Fun of Learning the Hawaiian Language The Hawaiian language is an Austronesian (or Polynesian) language that is the ancestral tongue of the Hawaiian Islands, which lie in the Pacific Ocean. The Hawaiian language is the official language of the State of Hawaii. It is an endangered language, meaning that it is no longer spoken officially on any of the populated Hawaiian Islands. The n ...Do We Have a Language Barrier in America? The current event that is on Ms. Fox’s mind this month concerns the three branches of our government. You see, they all believe they are in public office to represent themselves and their personal interest; however, they need us, the American Citizens, to inform them that they were voted into public office to represent us. Each branch is now spe ...Garlic As A Second Language "Three nickels will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat." ~Old New York saying.Have you ever been curious about why garlic smells the way it does? Well, wonder no more. Read on about this hearty and versatile member of the lily family and find out how it came to be on everyone’s breath everywhere you would think to ...Dying Languages There are approximately 6 000 languages spoken in the world today, but many of these are quickly dying out. (A language is described as “dead” when there are no native speakers left.) On the island of New Guinea, 3 million people speak a total of 740 languages between them. Even more amazingly, there are perhaps 260 Australian Aborigine language ...IT Focus - Careers and Redundancy Once you have become an IT professional your life becomes consumed with IT. Long hours of programming, support or planning and irate spouses become your life.There seems to be no way out of the IT circuit and the rule is diversify or die. What was popular today is gone tomorrow and to keep employed you are always having to surf the ...Successfully Reduce and Eliminate Your Accent I used to have an accent. I didn’t mind the accent itself, what bothered me was constantly being judged by strangers. If you have an accent too, I’m sure you’ve noticed that you are being treated differently than your friends who are native English speakers. Anybody who judges people with accents probably doesn’t even mean to. It’s mainly a subc ...Has the World Gone Acronym M.A.D (mankind against dysfunctionality)? We now LOL, respond ASAP, BYOB to parties, and watch CSI on TV. My initial reaction (pardon the pun) it that we are becoming too lazy to actually say the entire words. I understand that text messaging is faster that way, but what about the rest of us speaking or writing-type people? Using initials has always been fairly common. After all, who go ...Quickly Learn A Language By Thinking In It It can be tedious to learn a language. There will always be a certain amount of rote memorization required. However, there are also many little techniques for more easily learning a language. Labeling things around the house in the language you want to learn comes to mind. Listening to tapes while in the car is another. Then there is a technique ...Dealing With Your Child's Unpleasant Habits Head BangingYoung children between the ages of and one and two may indulge in this form of senselessness. Children head bang for one of two reasons, either because they are unable to get their own way and so they do this as part of their temper tantrum, or purely because they enjoy it! Yes I know that this may sound a little strange but t ...Mastering a Foreign Language: How To Become A Brilliant Speaker, Part 5 of 7 Get ready, because this is a major key to your success in becoming a brilliant speaker in a foreign language! And the incredible secret of it is, that it’s really easy.Most teachers of foreign languages I’ve met don’t teach it this way, but thinking in a foreign language and translation back and forth between different languages are reall ...What's in a Name Different people call their Customers by different names. If they don’t have Customers, they have Clients, purchasers, licensees, users, patients, members, franchisees, or buyers. Each of these words carries meaning to those who say them. And those meanings say something about the health and long term success of the enterprise.What do ...Body Language- Stages of Attraction to Attract Women Let's face it when it comes to women showing men signs of interest, most men do not have a clue.For the most part a woman when she is attracted to a man will follow a specific sequence which most body language experts refer to as the "Stages of Attraction".As a man it is important that you recognize the stages so that you can parti ...How to Dramatize Your Foreign Language Teaching and Learning In my previous article “How to Add Drama to an EFL Class or Start a Drama Group” some interesting ways in which you could initiate Drama into an EFL class or new drama group we suggested. If you’re a foreign language student, sooner or later you’ll start becoming “tired” or “bored” with the more conventionally used teaching approaches. This is e ...Hidden Secret of Your Personality Have you ever thought – your personality will be judged by the “how words you use” ?Have you Ever thought – “Your words can affect hereditary process”? You will come to know most exclusive facts about yourself….. go ahead.TAHC=P cycle ...The Language of Beauty Diamonds are a girl's best friend. Diamonds are forever. Diamonds are the supreme gift of love....From time immemorial diamonds have been associated with love, power, mystical and healing powers. At the same time they also have been shrouded in myths and beliefs. Diamonds have a great number of superstitions attached to them, but apparently it i ...Top Five Ways to Seduce a Woman in Under 60 Seconds Ever sit at a bar and look around, and notice that some guys just have that innate indescribable characteristic – that charm that attracts woman to them. I hate to burst your bubble the truth is - whether those guys are conscious of it or not, they are utilizing some very simple tactics to attract the opposite sex.Some of the top social p ...Why You Should Take The Time To Teach Your Own Baby Sign Language There's good news for parents and babies and its welcome news indeed. It's called baby sign language. The lack of a means for communication between a parent and a baby has always been frustrating for both parties. A parent hears their child crying and is helpless to understand what the baby wants.They do the standard checks, like feeling ...Seecrets on Google: Almost Everything You Want to Know About Google Google NewsThe stories are not fact-checked. Its reporters are not journalists [words from CNN’s Global Edition]. Available in Australia English, Canada English, Hong Kong English, India English, Singapore English, United Kingdom English, Sanskrit, Tang Dynasty Chinese and Esperanto. For real news, see MSN News or Yahoo News. ...Speaking Body Language Body language is an important part of every communication which, according to at least one study, accounts for around 55% of what we are communicating. (The other constituents from the same study are the 'Way We Speak' - 38% and the 'Words We Use' - 7%) so if you wish to communicate well, then it makes sense to understand how you can (and can't) ...Dealing with Difficult People 1. Don't get Hooked !!!When people behave towards you in a manner that makes you feel angry, frustrated or annoyed - this is known as a Hook.We can even become "Hooked" by the way people look, how they talk, how they smell and even by their general demeanour.If we take the bait then we are allowing the other person to contro ...
|