I seem to have opened a can of worms here by use of the term "ethnic",
and I suppose it is down to me to call off the hounds and ask people
again if they can address my original query and tell me anything about
the availability of e-texts in languages other than British/American
English which might appeal to people who have come (or whose
parents/grandparents etc came) from various parts of planet earth which
I know only by name.
To clarify what I was trying to get at by this dreaded
not-to-be-repeated word was e-texts in (a) languages other than English
and (b) the many of varieties of World English, which differ greatly
from British English, in which there may well be material of great
literary and cultural worth and which our British book trade is for one
reason or another not handling.
This is solely a practical issue of making available to people stuff in
a language they would like to read, and is nothing to do with, race,
colour, nationality, country of birth, or any other characteristic by
which the members of the human race may be classified other than the
language they speak and like to read.
Peter Marshall
Project Development Librarian
Bexley Council
Tel: 020 8320 4135 (Direct Line)
email: [log in to unmask]
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++
-----Original Message-----
From: Kathy Oluwi [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 03 December 2002 14:12
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: e-books
Yeah, whatever,
The point is that good intentions aren't actually good enough. And
anyone who is frequently on the receiving end of 'good intentions' may
just happen to experience it as patronising and ignorant. Which I do.
Kathy
"Thompson, John - Libraries" wrote:
> Yep, Kathy, we're all "ethnic". I have a so-called "mixed race"
(weird
> term - there's only one human race) family.
>
> But we can't talk about a Black language, can we? or a "white" or
> "non-white" language.
>
> Perhaps we should focus more or on culture than on colour? Skin
> colour's in the genes - language and philosophy isn't.
>
> Sometimes there's a correspondence and concord among labels, e.g.
> Chinese (Chinese people, Chinese language, "yellow" skin, Chinese
> history etc.) - sometimes there's not, e.g. American, Swiss, South
> African.
>
> No matter how "PC" the labels, we're always going to go adrift if the
> underlying attitude is unhelpful. I'm sure Peter was using the term
> ethnic with every good intention.
>
> Merry Christmas everybody!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kathy Oluwi [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 03 December 2002 09:29
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: e-books
>
> What is an 'ethnic' language? If you mean e-books in languages other
> than English, then say so and think twice before using the word
> 'ethnic'.
>
> What's wrong with saying, Black, Asian, Chinese etc? Why not be
specific
> about what one means, rather than trying to be too sensitive or too
> polite when talking about something that is 'non-white'.
>
> Kathy Oluwi
>
> "Marshall, Peter" wrote:
>
> > On the subject of e-books, I regret that I have no experience to
> relate,
> > but, while the subject is in the air, I would like to raise the
issue
> of
> > the availability of e-texts in ethnic languages.
> > It seems to us that the most immediate, not to say urgent, need in
> > providing access to electronic texts retrievable from the web is the
> > area of ethnic language material, where there is an obvious need for
a
> > wide range of languages (here in outer SE London our Council
> > interpreting service reckons about 50, and in inner cities it can be
> 150
> > or more), but the actual number of customers for each language makes
> it
> > uneconomic to purchase books (i.e. those old-fashioned things with
> paper
> > pages).
> > I know that there is quite a lot of stuff available in Chinese
(though
> I
> > am given to believe that this is more of interest to your average
man
> or
> > woman on the Beijing omnibus, rather that the millions all over SE
> Asia
> > who use Chinese as a lingua-franca) and there appears to be quite a
> bit
> > of Vietnamese (largely it seems owing to the size of the
> > Vietnamese-speaking community in California), and I am of course
aware
> > of the ethnic language newspapers available through
> kidon.com/medialink/
> > and other sites, but from this point on my knowledge starts running
> very
> > thin, and if anyone knows anything more - even about one individual
> > language, particularly those spoken by the various refugees
> communities
> > - I should be grateful.
> >
> > Peter Marshall
> > Project Development Librarian
> > Bexley Council
> > Thamesmead Centre
> > Yarnton Way
> > Erith. DA18 4DR
> >
> > Tel: 020 8320 4135 (Direct Line)
> > email: [log in to unmask]
> >
> >
>
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