[WikiEN-l] Category translation

Thu Jun 8 10:31:18 UTC 2006

Andrew Gray wrote:

>The problem with language and cultural issues isn't with neutrality,
>or whether-or-not something gets written about, it's how it gets
>written about. Indeed, the "cultures" aren't really differences
>between Danish culture and Japanese culture - they're differences
>between the internal culture of the Danish wikipedia and that of the
>Japanese wikipedia.
>
The important differences are the deep one between cultures and 
linguistic structures.  The concepts that are most significant in a 
culture are taken for granted by the members of that culture.  It's "the 
way things are done", and doing things differently is well outside the 
box.  Other cultures will take an entirely different set of ideas for 
granted.  Different pronoun sets, the selection of verb forms, the use 
of inflections instead of prepositions can all be major factors in 
cultural differences.  It's not so simple that it can be dismissed as a 
difference between internal Wikipedia cultures.

Ec