In article 0@assen.demon.co.uk, john@assen.demon.co.uk (John McCabe) writes:
>ian@rsd.bel.alcatel.be (Ian Ward) wrote:
>
>>In article 0@assen.demon.co.uk, john@assen.demon.co.uk (John McCabe) writes:
>
><..snip..>
>
>>> What I find most annoying though, is
>>>being _told_ to write my code LIKE_THAT by bloody Germans!
>>>
>
>>If the staff at your company learn German, and French, well
>>enough, and funding allows, then perhaps your company can
>>become prime contractors in future projects.
>
>Doubt it. We seem to do a lot of work for the Germans and I don't
>think that will change much, especially with the UK governments
>phenomenal investment in Space NOT.
Concur.
>
>I am actually working for some "friends" of yours in Alcatel Toulouse.
>Now have they caused us problems or what? Over the last 3 years we've
>been working to a continuously changing interface specification, not
>because of modifications or improvements, it's just that Alcatel
>Espace haven't got the foggiest idea what the equipment _they_
>[reputedly] designed and built does!
>
>But that's just bitching! Hope Alcatel Belgium is better!
Yeah, they are good lads.
>
>>Alternatively, you could consider a successful career in
>>tabloid journalism, I would not be too surprised if the 
>>Daily Mirror has a few openings;-)
>
>What about the Daily Record? Oh, of course, that's being abusive to
>English people and I wouldn't want to do that would I? It's a pity
>Scotland hasn't got its own domain - ho hum.
>
>>Best regards,
>>Ian.
>
>
>
>Best Regards
>John McCabe <john@assen.demon.co.uk>
>

Sorry, John mate, I was just being facetious, I seem to have been
in that sort of mood for the last couple of weeks. :-)

My point was that if I had been reading and writing English, for
the whole of my life, such that it was my mother tongue, then 
picking out the words from a long string of characters would
probably be easy. If, however, I was using English at work, 
simply because it is easier for a multi-country project to work
in one language, then I may not be so good at picking out
the word boundaries, and help would be appreciated.

This situation could be solved, however, if the members of 
all countries, no matter their language, romantic, germanic,
or otherwise, all started to use the same word for newly 
invented things. 

Like, say, AIDS. If everybody in the world ignored the fact that
it was an acronym, and just called it "aids", as was it named by it's
discoverers. Then, if for then next fifty years, people did this
with each new thing or activity that was discovered, the languages
of the world would converge. Then there would be no problems
with communication.

This will never happen though, as a new Germanic, or Fran<sp>ckish
word is invented to describe it.


Best regards,
---
Ian Ward's opinions only : ian@rsd.bel.alcatel.be




Yes, I agree that syndr�me invent� pour decourager les
amoureux wasn't discovered in Los Angeles, (or even 
called that) which is my other point; that the English
speaking community do the same thing. We are all as
bad as each other.