Level of English (survey)

[Serge]

Hello dear colleagues,

Here I thought about creating a new sub-division of our forum for English members for "Useful materials..." (also known as literature exchange). Of course this is sort of illegal time to time (because as we all know some people still pay money for papers and books... huh) and not all scientific knowledge is still free. At the same point I strongly believe that all knowledge should be free (unless you're a stupid undergrad who even cannot make a difference between B and Bh from periodic table...) Oops, sorry, it's hard not to off-top being admin..

So what I think is important here - is to make our communication much more international or, at least cross-continental. As we all believe English is the only opportunity to communicate with "people-from-that-side-of-Earth". For this I need to estimate you English proficiency. Sorry for bad English.

So please do vote here and make notes you think could be of interest for the discussion. This text is written in English.... guess why?

[Polychemist]

Agree. This must be a good practice. Some other topics could be interesting for everybody, e.g. "anti-chemistry".

[Любитель_Манниха]

as we all know some people still pay money for papers and books...

This should be our slogan for sure

...and I thought only poor Russian scientists had a demand for such a division, and the rich burzhui had any imaginable access to paid articles etc

[Viksya]

.

[Tulippa]

I think that your idea is very good.

[Biginelli]

Such an idea is quite marvellous, methinks; fullfillment of the above-suggested should elevate this magnificent forum to a really international level.

However, I 'd like to note one thing concerning the topic name: it is the level of written English it is all about, am I correct?

[ИСН]

Indeed. After all, "Chukcha is writer, not reader".

[Serge]

Indeed. After all, "Chukcha is writer, not reader".

yeah, but before writting smth you need to read what you're talking about, right?

[Biginelli]

Indeed. After all, "Chukcha is writer, not reader".

I have underlined the written English to distinguish it from spoken English... Apparently it was a bit of misunderstanding...

[Ahha]

The idea on the whole seems reasonable and even obvious for the international scientific community to which most of the forum participants are thought to belong. Still I don't see a decent point in making any "subdivisions" etc. I suppose that it is enough just to acknowledge English as "the second official language" of the chemport forum. That would require only minor changes to status quo.

1) First, and the biggest work would be to translate forum rules and regulations into English. It is not so time consuming as it may seem and, considering the preliminary results of the current survey, could be accomplished in a matter of hours.

2) Make some necessary corrections to the rules, allowing to start a topic in English without Russian translation. Probably it would be better also to obligate participants of the discussion to follow to carry it on in English in such cases, just for the sake of everybody's understanding.

If ever there occur any additional details to be settled, it can be done on the fly, I think. For chemistry and related area professionals visiting the forum this will do. As for the already mentioned dumb students, most likely they will never notice that anything has changed.

[ИСН]

I have underlined the written English to distinguish it from spoken English... Apparently it was a bit of misunderstanding...

Got your point, but spoken language is of no use here, so anyway our Chukcha is not a speaker either.
Concerning the rules, it would be also nice to have some alternative skin with English interface for the whole thing, so that the forum, like Anus the two-faced (or whatever was the guy's name?), would look relatively "natural" in both languages.
This, however, is gonna attract a hell of a lot of "PLEEEEZEEEEEE HEEELPPPPP"-kind illiterate morons, so - - -

[Serge]

Dr.House, we do have the English interface - all you need is just to pick one in your profile.

[ИСН]

O RLY? Wow!

[Serge]

O RLY? Wow!

yes. but forum and topics names are still in Russian...

[Himera]

I strongly support the idea. However, I wonder how we engage non-Chinese foreign users in writing here.

PS. Viksya, the English version of the rules for the "Exchange" forum is available here

[Viksya]

.

[Himera]

There is, see the very end of the post

[Viksya]

.

[Cezar]

Stop speaking your barbarian language in Russian Internet you bastards!

(Ponny mode off)

Good idea guys, don't ... it.

[Serge]

Guys, when I posted here I meant actually either new English sub-forums of existing ones (mst likely) and/or just allowing guys to post in English as it was described by Ahha (when topic strats in English it is supposed to run in English).
And the "Exchange" forum is of least interest here - because it is:
a. not very legal
b. not of interest for the community...

We need to increase our communication level by just step-by-step involving non-ru guys for serious discussions, not for exchange. Only time can make them post here together with your chemical proficiency and patiency in responding.

...I wonder how we engage non-Chinese foreign users in writing here...

Here is a hint: we could translate most important/interesting scientific topics in chemical forums so that our newbies would get attracted. Also once it is indexed by google it will be available through regular web-search and chemists will easily find it on the web.
What do you think?