• Right language

    by  • 3 December, 2004 • Weird • 1 Comment

    Okay, one more quicky before I go to sleep, because it is the end of the week, and I owe you some entries for the time lost these months. I’ve been asked a few times why I write this blog in English. While I gracefully try to cover up that I don’t have a clue as to the right answer to that question, this problem keeps nagging in the back of my head. Fortunately palmOne has come to the rescue, actually make that palmOne, Formerly known as Palm, Inc comes to the rescue. Huh? Prince, anyone?

    Whatever, I’ve always been a great fan of the Palm PDA’s, from the days they were still 3M PDA’s, and so I read with pleasure that they now made a 802.11b, better known as Wi-Fi, interface card for my handheld. This would allow me to run around in the house or wherever there is a Wi-Fi hot spot and browse my favourite websites on a minuscule screen with limited color depth. And send and receive e-mail, let’s not forget that. I could send e-mail from the kitchen to Yvonne working on her computer in the study room. Great! Of course I could also use this to write more articles for my blog, but let’s just not get overboard, shall we? So I rush over to their site, and since I am going to Belgium in a couple of week times, I look over the list of countries. Yep, Belgium is listed. Twice. There are more countries that are listed twice. Hong Kong for instance is listed as “Hong Kong – English” and “Hong Kong – Chinese”, which makes sense as you are probaly aware of the fact that those 2 language are more or less practiced over there. Then there is Switzerland, twice, with the suffixes “- French” and “- German”. Makes sense too, but I can’t help noticing that they forgot “- Italian”. At least they didn’t put “Switzerland – Swahili” or something.

    Now we come to Belgium, le plat pays qui était le mien, and yes, “Belgium-French” is listed, out of respect for the 35% of French speaking people who are entitled to be addressed in their own language by PalmOne, Formerly known as Palm, Inc. And now my friends, it’s yourturn, the other 65% percent of the population of Belgium, who make up a large portion of my audience. Well, according to palmOne, Formerly known as Palm, Inc. you all speak English. There, I knew all along that I had a very good reason for doing this in English! It just wouldn’t pop-up in my head when I needed it. Now you know. So, the next time you ask me to speak my own language, I am speaking my own language, or your own language, since it is you who live in Belgium, not me, and it is you who belong to the 65% of English speaking Belgians, acoording to palmOne, Formerly known as Palm, Inc. at least. And Greece doesn’t even figure on the list of countries worthy of palmOne’s (for short) attention, let alone “Greece-Dutch”.

    Good night.
    Sleep well.
    Καλή νύχτα.
    Γλυκές όνειρες.

    One Response to Right language

    Leave a Reply