Topic responses in English please!

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#1

I believe that with the growing support for UCS outside of Germany I would encourage Univention staff to respond to topics in English. Many of us are struggling with technical German and would appreciate if English is used thruout the support site. Understand that Germans would like to use their own language however a brief i English and the answer in English would be really useful for the rest of us Univention fans.

Otherwise I appreciate the Univention effort to bring a mature Linux product to all us Linux fans.
Great work.

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#2

They do. …(20 chars :wink:

#3

I respectfully disagree, or at least with the notion that all answers should (also) be given in English. There are plenty of Germans who don’t speak English very well, and communicating about tricky technical issues in a foreign language can be quite difficult and error-prone.

It’s also somewhat disrespectful to assume that everyone speaks English well enough. It has happened a couple of times over the past couple of weeks that a German topic was answered in English only to have the original poster wondering why the answers were in English and that he couldn’t really understand them. Such circumstances don’t help anyone.

I also don’t really see the problem here. There doesn’t have to be One Language To Rule Them All. If you see a topic in German that you think applies to your particular issue, then just open a new one (in English), point to existing German topic, explain your issue and we’ll do our best to either translate the existing German topic or to provide advice based on your description.

What I’m asking for: be respectful towards others and mindful of their needs.

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#4

It breaks my heart reading Moritz Bunkus answer.

I made a humble request for english briefs and answers so that we non German speaking fans can follow discussions and solutions. (Btw. Google translation is not good enough)

My mothertounge is neither German nor English. I have just rudimentary understanding of the German language let alone technical German. My background is Windows and IBM Domino so after 30+ years in the professional IT world I’m struggling with Linux. If Germans are having trouble with technical English it means that it is virtual impossible for us non German speaking to follow German topics.

I have worked in multilanguage and multicultural teams and English has always been the common denominator.

However if this is Univention corporate policy, I will start to withdraw my recommendation for Univention UCR with my customers and followers. Why publish UCR in English if German is the prefered language for support.

We really need your assistance and knowledge but do not expect us to learn German, non of us have the time and desire. There is a whole world out there that doesn’t speak German.

I sincerly beg you to respect us that do not speak German.

Sincerly Yours
Bengt-Ă…ke Hagert
Swedish speaking from birth

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#5

I seem to have failed to express what I wanted to express in the first place. I’m completely fine with people asking and answering questions in English. I just think that someone asking a question in German shouldn’t be have to read answers in English, especially after expressing that his/her English isn’t all that good in the first place.

PS: I’m not associated with Univention. My opinions are my own and not any kind of indication of official policy.

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#6

And what about our knowledge of the German language??? I totally get that Germans may want the answer in the German language but that leave us non German speaking outside of the loop, excluding users outside of Germany. Isn’t that a bit arrogant.
English is one of the official languages for Univention UCR, so I would hope that the support site would do so in regard to content as well.

#7

I would argue that there are two kinds of posts in this forum: those asking for help regarding a specific issue they’re facing and general topics such as knowledge base articles or guides on how to do things.

For the latter category I completely agree: such articles should always be available in English as their goal is to reach as many people as possible. And Univention is pretty good wrt such articles; they’re pretty much always available in English and often in German, too.

For the case of addressing specific problems people have: here the intention is not to provide as many people as possible with knowledge of some kind. Quite the opposite. The initial goal is to solve one person’s problem, nothing more. The people asking such questions cannot know whether the problem they encounter is something specific to their system (and therefore completely irrelevant for the general UCS-using population) or if it stems from some kind of systemic issue affecting multiple users. So they ask about what they assume is their own particular problem, and a lot of them ask in German because their English isn’t up to it, and when someone answers in English and the original poster doesn’t even understand the answer — that’s a clear failure to communicate and not helpful at all. And the goal of a support forum is providing help and support for those asking for it, isn’t it?

Again, if you’re having a problem similar to one mentioned in a German topic, or a question about something that’s mentioned in a German topic and you don’t understand it — by all means, ask for clarification in English. We’d be happy to oblige.

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#8

You dont get it!!
We no German speakers are not able to follow the topics in German in most cases. Both the question and screenshots are in German, how on earth can we deduce what the topic is all about.

The objectiv for a support forum is to share common issues and learn from the solutions on how to resolve our own issues without asking for help. It is not a one on one situation.

Please this is not at all helpfull and construtive but rather offensive!

#9

We seem not to communicate well at all, therefore I’ll stop now. I’m sorry I’ve come across as offensive. That definitely wasn’t my goal.

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#10

The IT community is by all mean English and you fail to reqognize that. Please acknowledge the fact that non Germans do rarely speak German.
On top of struggling with technical issues you expect us to have the time and ability to decipher German. What if it all was in Swedish or Finnish. Please have a perspective. Your English is excellent but how about Swedish or maybe Finnish. What if the situation is reversed.

You do come across as offensive and arrogant.

The majority of the topics are in German and I am only able to follow but a few, hence my request for more English.

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#11

to add a bit of a “non moderator” perspective. I think the “problem” (if you want to call it one) is that the majority of the Univention community are actually native german speakers. Univention has done quite some effort over the last years to get more international and while international users are a growing number up until now the majority of users are still coming out of germany.

Making this an english only community would probably alienate a lot of people who were here from the beginning, so a dual language approach seems to be the most sensible to me. This does not mean that all posts should be replied only in english (or english and german), but people should be encouraged to ask their questions in english. Replies will then still be made in the language of the original poster.

The same can imho be observed with other projects that start in non-english countries. You first use your native language and when trying to get global you try to make a switch. At least here we don’t have the effect that out of the blue someone writes a german reply in an english thread (seen that with other languages and other projects in the past).

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#12

Hey,

thanks, Felix. Such a dual language approach is what I intended to argue for, too. Nothing more.

m.

#13

Thanks guys - English translation would be great. When I get the English response from univention it is always very helpful. Thanks for your hard work.

#14

All this primarily for the amusement of native speakers about what Germans think Englisch is … :slight_smile:

#15

I think what the human is asking for is this: 1. answer the question in german, in depth. 2 follow with a english explanation of the answer. This essentially heads off a double post of the same question that might not get any attention for days or weeks.

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