Languages in districts: cause for discrimination?

If you are looking for a pug I would suggest trying to find someone who speaks a language you do whatever it may be.
If you are just hanging out in a district for the heck of it, ignore the languages you dont understand.

Having taught in Japan, I am aware of their educational stance on teaching English---it is REQUIRED at the junior high school level for 3 years as well as for 2 in high school as well. That said they are not taught much beyond what they would need to pass an easy written test in the language, sad to say. And very few learn enough conversational English to even want to TRY to speak to others in English.....
The education system in many European countries also focuses on learning other languages at a young age, Sweden, for example, starts in the lower grades offering the choice of 3 (or 4) languages--then again offering another one of those a few years later and again another a few years later with the understanding "if you go a few hundred miles in any direction you wont be in Sweden anymore".
American schools, while offering language instruction, dont do so at an early enough age. Most schools wait until junior high school (I had french) or high school which is too late to start effectively teaching it in the opinion of many language professionals (the language centers of the brain slow down after age 5 or so making it increasing more difficult to pick up new languages).

sorry for the thesis on languages, however, I do believe we should let people speak whatever they wish, though if they want to go to an English district they should realize that if they dont speak the language they will have a distinct disadvantage language wise in that district as many people there will NOT speak anything BUT English in that district.

I consider it a matter of courtesy to speak in public in a language that those present understand. However, not doing so is only impolite and certainly not grounds for any kind of sanction except not being understood.

This, I agree with wholeheartedly (and thanks for the info on Japanese schools).

I would agree with those who have said it's a courtesy for those to speak the district's native language. As stated, they might have some disadvantage should they not - if trying to form group, trade, etc. Does it bother me if others are there speaking anything other than that language? Nope. More often than not I have all chat turned off anyway.

Hmm only my opinion:
I don't have any problem with foreign ppl or languages... many of my friends (irl and ingame) are from different countries...
BUT:
when someone is selling anything in an american district and you pm him and ask something like "how much is it?" or "which skin is it?" and he doesnt even understand that he should better stay in a district with his language.... It's just a waste of time for both. me and the other player if he doesn't understand a single word...

But well...
This happens like 1 time in a month or something like that... so its not a big problem at all.
Also I never saw that someone was discriminated because of a foreign language or something...

Spanish most certainly isn't. Mandarin Chinese has over twice as many native speakers. English and Spanish are neck to neck, with estimates putting both second and third. Adding second and foreign language speakers, Chinese probably still wins by a wider berth, and English beats Spanish hands down. (These are all estimates, but there is no way Spanish is as widely spoken as you think.)

You'd have to be really self-centered to get mad because you saw someone speaking a language you don't understand.

the problem with people that get pissed off when other speak another language is that they are paranoid ....."omg they are plotting against me what are they saying"

these are the same people that get mad when people in a public place speak another language..

no people arent talking about you ..just get over yourself your not that important


and also people saying that the other person attempt to speak english ..your so full of it cause i HAVE seen people ntry to speak english and then you get an even bigger douche bag telling them to LEARN english or basically humiliate that player because hes speaking broken english ..when even that player is saying english is not his native toungue

And that describes the average teenager.

No, why? Must be the silliest thing I've heard in a long time. There is no reason to use the language of people for whom a communication is not intended.

It's a lot harder to express oneself in a foreign language, why do you expect other people to limit what they can talk about?

You talk about curtesy while you expecting other people to put your wishes on the first place.

Lol.

Perhaps if you tell them you are interested in what they have to say they will switch.

I agree with those.
Personally I'm happy to hear different languages, if in the world everything was in english and everybody would only speak english...what a sad thing would it be. I like hearing languages I don't know, because I think I can learn something that way, and I try to guess what they're saying. And if speaking with each other, both should just try to understand and meet in the middle. I have close Polish friends, I understand nothing of that language (I really tried to learn, but it' sooooo difficult) and they don't understand my language(s). Luckily we can speak english but none of us perfectly, so we sometimes have to find a way to explain the word we want to say. And we never fail. It's true that if there's not a single language two persons can communicate in, than things get difficult, but in a game like this there's always a way to describe things.
Instead if you hear people speaking a different language and they're not speaking with you...why should you care? Get a life
I think it's less educated when a newbie asks you for information and you answer with a bunch of abbreviations he's never going to understand.

And, on general basis, even if districts are nobody's home or possession, when did you hear a tourist speak the language of the country he's visiting? I think only 1% does, unless it's a very very common language, and here you can maybe get 50%. I more often heard tourists requiring you to speak their language. So I think there's a very campanilist mind behind discriminations.

Totally agree.

*SIGH*

You just don't get it do you?

Being courteous means being considerate of other people, but I guess that's just crazy talk to you.

Oh and in the Euro districts the most common used foreign language in chat is dutch, not dissing on the dutch but why not just whisper to each other instead of filling up the chat with your nonsense - would you mind passing that on to your fellow dutch people

If they aren't speaking to me they shouldn't be talking in the chat either.

Do tourist stand on the town square yelling in their native language.. I never noticed that where I live.

Dont froget Indian up there with Chineese. Seeing as rougly 2/5 of teh worlds population is either in China or India.

Just troll the shit out of them and they'll eventually leave or talk the right language. If they want to speak in their own language they should use whisper or something.

Damn If I am in the International Dist do I have to speak the International Language? Which would be the Language of Love!

Forgot about Chinese. Don't know how, it's not exactly a small country (double checked, my stats thing didn't include most of the east, will find a more complete thing). I still think Spanish beat English (first language only) and I don't know why someone would choose to read a popular website in their second language if their first was available.

Meh, whatever. The point is, English isn't universal and it does no harm to have people advertising guilds, chatting or selling stuff in their own language. Most of the time it's easy to understand what they're saying because of GW terminology. Most non-English speakers will still use things like 'WTS' and 'WTB' even if they don't know what the unabbreviated versions are and you can still ping builds in a non-English group -shrugs-

I can't believe all of the crap being posted in this thread. Some of you have the audacity to demand that foreign players learn english or stay out of the district? Who the hell are you to decide what they can and cannot type. A handful of you clowns have even gone so far as to play that "courteous" bs. You want them to learn english at your leisure because you feel uncomfortable seeing them speak in their native tongue? Your annoyance/anger towards them speaking their native language in an American districts is a product of your own insecurities, or better yet your ignorance. Those same players wouldn't hound you if you were in a different district. Just because they're in the American district does not give you any right to demand that they speak English, and to believe so otherwise and post your ignorant comments in this thread is a joke.

I'm American and I more than disgusted by some of the things you people have said. That's one of the biggest problems with people in the US these days. Everyone is a fcking narcissists who believes the rest of the world should revolve around our country.

As far as American and European English districts go, yes, there is a lot of chatter in a diverse number of languages. However, I would never presume I could go into a French district and successfully converse with the majority of the population there. If I wanted to sell something, I'm best off attempting to converse in the language of that district. Plus, I'm sure if I started babbling in English in local chat, I might get some broken English responses, but mostly people just ignoring me.

Personally, I think it is easier for everyone to congregate by their best spoken language, but I know it is not always that practical considering there are missing districts for several languages, and often times non-english districts are devoid of a significant population - especially outside main towns. That said, I find excessive talk in a language I don't understand to be annoying, which I am sure many people empathize with no matter which language you speak. It sucks when you don't understand what people are saying and it just becomes 'clutter' - but it has nothing to do with discrimination.

I mostly just keep local chat off. It's not as if 14 year old English is real English anyways .

You mean someone should talk in general chat only if he/she's adressing to you?

Oh yes yes, they do...that and a lot more.

If they can have a semi-intelligent conversation with me in English, I could care less what they do in all chat...It's the ones that cant speak English (in the american/english districts) that annoy me