Chinese Written Language To Dominate Internet 535
Zothecula writes "In the beginning, the language of the World Wide Web was English. Times change though, and the United States military's gift to civilization knows no national boundaries, and growing worldwide adoption of the internet has changed the audience make-up to such an extent that the dominant language of the internet is about to become Chinese. That's not to say the Chinese are all that comfortable with this either. There has just been an official decree requiring the use of Chinese translations for all English words and phrases in newspapers, magazines and web sites. While all countries have watched the unregulated global nature of the internet erode traditional cultural values and the integrity of national languages, it seems the Chinese powers-that-be have concluded that the purity of the Chinese language needs to be preserved."
Re:Sad (Score:5, Funny)
And so we're once more divided. What's the value of an international network when every country insists on their own language?
Well, the scientists refused to use COBOL because its a wee bit lacking in the numerical analysis area, and the bean counters refused to use FORTRAN because they don't like expressing bean counts using floating point... Its not exactly a new problem.
Re:Uh... (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, that's true. The internet >> WWW.
Sorry, but appending The Internet onto the World Wide Web requires root privileges.
Re:Whats the problem? (Score:4, Funny)
Translation software needs work.
For a bit of fun, try out Translation Party [translationparty.com], which uses Google Translate to convert text back and forth between English and Japanese until the English version is the same twice in a row.
Re:Esperanto (Score:5, Funny)
You misspelt 'English'.
Re:This is it! (Score:5, Funny)
With some regularity I run into Dutch, German, Japanese, and Russian sites when looking for various information.
Heh, "various information".
Re:Esperanto (Score:3, Funny)
Reddening:becoming redly, the quality of redness.
Mastercattering: causing someone to become a master of cats, by teaching them the mystic ways of ancient Mastercatters.
Liberace: doing something in a freedom loving spirit, usually involving rhinestones and a piano.
Re:Uh... (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, that's true. The internet >> WWW.
Sorry, but appending The Internet onto the World Wide Web requires root privileges.
I believe OP was stating that the internet was shifted-right by the World Wide Web, clearly resulting in an internet that is less great than the original.