Non-native English celebration fest?

[kerravonsen]

From yvi:
With recent problems with LJ, there has been an influx of people coming over from there, and a significant portion of those users are from Russia, blogging in Russian. There have been complaints about this, and one of those complaints annoyed me enough that I ranted about it.

And thoughts came up for a non-English language fest on Dreamwidth. And there was the question of whether this should be a fest (length to be determined) for people posting in non-English or if it should be more focused on native speakers posting in their language. The first option was favored, however, I am going for the other one.

http://yvi.dreamwidth.org/218972.html

Comments

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

Interesting idea... and then I read the discussion.

I could participate (not that I'm on DW anyway and don't want to be), given that there was somewhat patronising approval given to those coming from countries whose native languages were drowned out or forbidden due to English hegemony, but quite honestly the attitudes displayed towards those native English speakers who showed support were enough to make me want to have nothing to do with it.

I understand safe spaces - I've been a member and even an organiser of women's groups - and I understand marginalisation as an immigrant and someone who works with immigrants. But the idea of fighting exclusion with more exclusion is anathema to me.

[kerravonsen]

the attitudes displayed towards those native English speakers who showed support were enough to make me want to have nothing to do with it

Yes, there was one person - make that three people - there who... made me cry.

But the idea of fighting exclusion with more exclusion is anathema to me

But it isn't exclusion, it's accuracy.
I had originally thought that the idea was "post in non-English languages!" - in which case, excluding English-speakers would be exclusion, yes.
However, the fest isn't actually about that. It's about "post in your native language which isn't English!" -- because they want to be able to demonstrate how many people feel gagged by the dominance of English on the net.

Thus my offer to post bad-grammar German with Google Translate was perceived as an arrogant, thoughtless insult. And I understand why. No matter that I "meant well", I "did ill".

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

IMO, it's exclusion for the sake of accuracy. The dilemma then becomes a question of who gets excluded and why.

Having read more of the discussion, I have a better idea of what the fest is going for. But it is being exclusionary of a portion of the population, because that's the nature and purpose of the event.

Being from a faith that is looked upon as exclusionary, I get it. However, I do find it a wee bit ironic that the fest is being planned in the very language that will be excluded from the fest.

I'm also uncertain about the implementation of this fest, based on having an uncle who was first generation Italian-American, but I won't go into that. Anyway, my opinion matters not a whit, as I'm not on DW, and being a native English speaker, I wouldn't be participating in the event anyway.

I'm sorry if you're still hurting from the misunderstanding. Having read the discussion, I have a better idea of why they were offended and why you're upset with yourself. But I hope you receive some of the understanding that others desire.

And I hope you find a way to participate or support the project that is satisfying.

It'd be interesting to watch this unfold. I do have a logistical question. Is yvi one of the DW mods? Is this, in theory, going to a DW-wide thing, where all posts across the medium/network/platform/whatever will be posted in a non-English native language?

[kerravonsen]

Is yvi one of the DW mods? Is this, in theory, going to a DW-wide thing, where all posts across the medium/network/platform/whatever will be posted in a non-English native language?

No, yvi isn't a DW mod, but she was hoping to speak to denise, who is one, once there's enough of a consensus to signal-boost it, asking her to post about it in the dw-news, so as to encourage people outside yvi's circle to participate.

And of course it won't be all posts, that's impossible in the format they're suggesting.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

Cool. I only speak English (and a bit of American Sign Language), but I like seeing how there are more and more fics in other languages on AO3, etc.

Shan't read the discussion stuff, though, I don't think. I don't find the internet to be a very rational place for such things. For safe spaces, sometimes; for the discussion of such... not never, but rarely.