Re: Emacs user manual in Spanish

[Emanuel Berg]

Jean-Christophe Helary wrote:

>>> ... I seem to remember that a few years
>>> ago, Japan was considering adopting English
>>> as its official language... Talk about
>>> silly...
>> 
>> I don't believe that at all - do you have
>> a reference?
>
> Google is your friend.

There was a guy of Swedish academia, Rakowsky
or something like that, who at his university
unit had switched from Swedish to English.
That the university was already at that point
very internationalized, with English obviously
the language used, did not prevent Rakowsky
from suggesting all of Sweden switch to
English.

SVT, the state television, hosted a show with
Rakowsky and they also invited Horace Engdahl,
who was then head of the foundation who hands
out the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Engdahl didn't attent the show but submitted
a message which, translated to perhaps
unidiomatic English, runs

    I consider Rakowsky's suggestion lunacy of
    the first degree that does not deserve any
    serious consideration. Luckily, it is
    impossible to carry thru, but otherwise it
    would amount to the first collective
    suicide committed by any nation in
    world history.

:)

Maybe it was something like that when "Japan"
considered switching to English as well.
Because yes, that sounds very un-Japanese.

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573