On Fri, Nov 1, 2019 at 12:16 PM JORDI PALET MARTINEZ via address-policy-wg <address-policy-wg@ripe.net> wrote:
Hi Nick,

My point was also a general observation (not something against any specific participant, just taking advantage of this specific example, as a mention to "Spanish inquisition" and "routing police" could be interpreted in between lines as something different, even if not intended).

There are many non-native English speakers in the RIR communities (at it happens in IETF, ICANN, etc.), however, often the native ones forget about that and keep using those jargons.

Doing so, you as asking the non-native speakers to spend 4-5 more times to read each message, to google around, looking at Wikipedia, youtube, etc.

Note that I fully understand that for those that are native-speakers, you are just using your natural language and expression, but being considerate to others may be much easier for you than for non-native to waste their time.

Should then we, non-native speakers, start using in the list our own languages and expressions that even using google translator, you will not catch? Are we discriminating part of the community otherwise?

In some regards, you/we already do, as we impose our own English variants on other list members.

I often need to spend 5-10 times more time reading your messages, than those of others, because you phrase things differently (and from my perspective, often awkwardly). It also happens with other non-native writers.

I silently accept this as the cost of communication across borders with a common, imperfect language. It's how things are, and I'll just have to try and make the best of it.

That said, I agree that anyone writing in their native or non-native English should be well aware that they need to be careful using idioms.
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Jan