I wasn't aware that FT had a language policy, but apparently it does:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=8419511

Note that I'm not questioning the moderator's actions but use this as the basis for my proposal. Why shouldn't non-English be allowed on FT?

If FT wants to incorporate a larger, more international audience, shouldn't we be accommodating of other languages?

It comes back to that principle of balkanization. What if someone posts a crucial piece of information in French or German? I can't read either; if I'm searching for that information I won't find what I need. While it benefits the community that speaks a given language it puts the larger FT community at a disadvantage and precludes access to information. Imagine if the Tokyo forum consisted of posts primarily in Japanese? How would that help those wishing to find out information on Japan that don't speak the language and most need the help?

Interesting ...

While I'm sympathetic to that position I think the benefits here outweigh that problem.

Imagine folks in Tokyo searching in Japanese for travel advice and they hit upon FT. FT suddenly becomes accessible to a whole net set of potential FTers.

I am against it.

For me, the value of FlyerTalk is not the forums themselves (there are thousands of travel-related forums on the internet), but the community that hangs around them. The ability to communicate and socialize with folks from many walks of life and many countries using a common language is what makes this community so great.

In my opinion, introducing other languages would segregate the FlyerTalk community without adding any benefit. Those who prefer to communicate in their non-English mother language already do so on other travel-related sites. I know there are a lot of German-language travel-related forums, and I have no doubt the same is the case with Japanese and any other more or less common language. For non-English speakers who come to FlyerTalk, the benefits of a common language must outweight the drawbacks. This is certainly the case for me, and I personally would prefer it to stay this way.

There is nothing in the TOS limiting FT posts to English. This was discussed when the TOS was revised ...and I think you'll find there are often posts in languages other than English.

Interesting.

The reason given in the thread I cited was that the moderator couldn't tell if there was a TOS violation within the foreign language. This seems like a reasonable argument to me.

If I start a thread and call so-and-so a ......... in Ukrainian, it's still a violation even though few would know it.

Nevertheless, I'm glad to hear there is no official policy against non-English posts. ^

For some reason I was always under the impression that the vast majority of posters on FT were American and they certainly don't speak English

I see no reason why other languages should not be used - my signature may have been a give away however

Yet Japanese forums exist. Surely you wouldn't visit a Japanese forum expecting to post in German? Even if not expressly prohibited, IMO keeping posts to one language facilitates communication. That applies to any forum in any language be it German, Japanese, Korean, French, etc. If someone doesn't understand, there's always Babelfish. That's how I read quite a few Japanese and Korean forums and post to them as well. It's not ideal but it gets the job done.

Given the diversity of folks on the board and the variety of languages members know, we pretty much figured that if there's a TOS violation in any language we're going to hear about it.

I guess I just don't understand why multiple languages can't be in one place. I understand the status quo as you describe it. But why does it need to be that way?

Obvious those posts do exist, even MODs do that. I also see profiles and sigatures containing foreigh characters.

Example 1: from JDiver
Example 2: One More: JDiver's bilingual post

ps. OP is not an English native in the above quoted example.

First thing first. English is not my native language. I happened to have one degree in the States, so I have been able to learn a lot from our larger FT community. Thank god for that!

IMHO, English has become "the" global language. If one wants to reach out his/her own locality/nationality, one must know another language. Among the world of (frequent) travellers, English seems to be the dominant choice for non-English speakers (I may be biased since I haven't found time to learn French, Japanese, or Spanish). I see nothing wrong with English being the "offcial" FT language. Afterall, Randy is an American.

Even though I contribute less often than I would like to our community, I can see the points kanebear raised.

I would think non-English informative posts/threads only serve those OP/posters with very limited English command and in great need of help. If answering in OP's mother language will get the points cross easier, I see no points of objecting to it. Meanwhile, I don't want to feel being leftout either. In my above example 2, JDiver even composed a bilingual respose so the FT community in large can follow it.

However, I sincerely doubt those who can't use English at a functioning level would come to FT for advices in the first place. They would turn to their own resources and websites in their languages. If they do need assistance in English, there are free transalation programs/softwares on the web. (The translation could be horrible though. )

We are here as a community to share and communicate information/passion about miles & points. English has been the common language to achieve this goal. If the information is crucial and relevant, it should be conveyed in the common language. Along the line of thread discussion, if we do sense the need to use the local language to illustrate the points or make in-sider jokes, so be it. FT shouldn't have a policy against non-English expressions under such circumstances.

Furthermore, if our TB decide to "escalate" our current FT to include foreign language versions, that will be nice also. Think about that! You can pick your preferrable languages to load/browse FT! @:-)

interesting thread. I was thinking about it before I started the France Forum Lounge thread. A thread within the french forum where FTer can practice their written french or ask about a word in french. it has a great acceptance among FTer there's a french language thread in the AirFrance forum as well.

Since I am the mod in that forum and french being my language, they know that french posts must stay within the TOS or they get removed just like any english post. this is written within the posting rules for that thread. for the general part, I generally ask people to provide translation if they put anything in a non english language.

I see a problem when mod can't judge wether a post is ok or not. same for signatures.

To limit posts to English seems very narrow minded. I would hope it's not a direction we turn to.

We seem to have brought FT, sharing experience and advice, to a progressive level in other areas. And it feels good; a much better path.

Until it's abused, is there really a problem?

Very good point; I recall a few incidents.

I need to clarify/retract/restate a bit; I think the status quo is ok. We have some foreign language use at present that doesn't seem to be posing a problem or impeding FTer access to information while greatly enhancing our sense of community. Stopping that would...not be the best idea. I simply wouldn't want to see an expansion of native-language use if it hindered the dissemination of information valuable and vital to FT's core mission.

This is exactly what I needed as an example. I would never want to limit such discourse.

Agreed.