# Asking about languages in forums



## 涼宮

Hello!

I do not know how to write the title so I better explain what I mean here . In order to ask questions about Spanish, you have: only Spanish and French/Portuguese/Italian/English and German-Spanish forums, but what happens if, for instance, a Chinese person is learning Spanish/Swedish, etc, but she/he does not know English nor does she/he know enough Spanish/Swedish to ask on the only Spanish forum or Swedish forum?. Can that person use the Chinese forum to ask about Spanish/Swedish?. I ask this because I usually see that in the Polish forum Polish people ask questions about English using Polish. The labels in the forum say ''for questions about Chinese/Romanian/Russian or translations, etc.'' The labels say that you ask questions about that forum language, not that you may use that language to ask questions about *any other language*. I mean especially grammar and not only words or phrases. If there aren't any rules about this, is it perfectly fine to do it?. Or am I missing something? 


I hope you understood, and thanks in advance!


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## JamesM

The forums are built around the target language(s).  If you speak Chinese and are interested in Swedish you can ask a question on the Swedish forum in Swedish (or English, as far as I know).  You are most likely to get an answer in the language you used for your post, so if you write in Swedish you will probably receive responses in Swedish.  English is considered the common intermediate language in most forums, except for those marked "Only", as in "Spanish Only", "Italian Only".  In those forums all questions and answers must be in the target language (Spanish, Italian, etc.)

Asking a question in the Chinese forum about Swedish goes against the way the forums operate.  I suppose you _could_ ask a question in Chinese in the Swedish forum but you might have to wait until a Chinese speaker who also knows Swedish reads your question and responds.

[edit]I've done a bit of research and have found that the Nordic Languages forum requires that thread titles be written in English.



> •Always indicate in English which language your question is asking about (example: Norwegian: full klaff). Using the same English labels for all threads makes it easier to search the forum for relevant posts. If your question encompasses multiple languages, indicate this as well (example: All Scandinavian languages: False friends).



Each forum has slightly different rules.  You can check at the top of each forum for a guide to that particular forum's rules and conventions.


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## 涼宮

Hello, James! That is what I asked giving the example I gave. if you do not know enough Swedish to ask in Swedish nor do you know English WHAT do you do? Not everyone knows English and some people don't like/want to use it. That is why I asked if such case comes up, is it perfectly fine to use the forum to ask about other languages?, if it isn't allowed, it could be understood as ''learn English or your target language well and fast enough to use it as a mean to learn your target language'', which seems unfair.

I know that each forum has slightly different rules, but let's mainly focus on those where you don't need to write in English.


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## JamesM

Our forums are linked to the WordReference dictionary through the thread titles.  The threads become an extended resource for people looking up definitions of words.  Because of that, the target language is very important.

Each forum sets its own rules in addition to the overall board rules.  From what I see, some forums specify that certain languages must be used and others don't.  For example, In Italiano-Español, only Italian and Spanish are allowed (Idiomas autorizados: italiano y castellano).   In Catalan any language is allowed as long as the question is about Catalan (Discussions may take place in Catalan and other languages).

It would not make sense for me to ask a question about Chinese in the Español-Français forum, even though these are the only languages (besides English) in which I could reasonably ask a question.   

I understand your question and your concern.  It may just be that this board is not set up (yet) to handle questions about any target language in any native language.   

I'm only speaking as a Wordreference Forum member.  Mike Kellogg, the administrator and owner of the board, might be a better person to answer your question.  Or perhaps a Chinese forum moderator could chime in.


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## 涼宮

I see. But I am still a little confused. Let's forget about Chinese and focus on those languages that have fixed forums such as Spanish and French. Let's say you are Swedish, you do not know English nor enough Spanish to ask in Spanish to learn Spanish, but you want to ask about Spanish, you only know Swedish and there isn't a Swedish-Spanish forum! What do you do then? If you can't use the Swedish forum to ask about Spanish, will you just tell that person ''as it is against the rules to ask about Spanish in the Swedish forum because the question is not about Swedish, goodbye, learn English or enough Spanish then come back and ask''?.  That's my main question! 

Let's wait for Mike Kellong to see


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## JamesM

The best way to reach Mike is to send a message via the Contact Us form:

http://forum.wordreference.com/sendmessage.php


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## cherine

Hi,

James, I'm afraid I'll have to disagree with you. I think your opinion is based on your experience with the EO forum and the bilingual ones.
From my experience in the smaller forums, I think I can tell Suzumiya that she's welcome to ask about Spanish, in Chinese, in the Chinese forum, if she only speaks these 2 languages.
I remember someone once reported a thread in the Arabic forum because the question was about English grammer. The reporter thought that the question belonged to the EO forum, but the Arabic moderators thought it's perfectly fine for an Arabic speaker -who's still learning English and isn't that good at it to have a discussion solely in English- to ask for an explanation of an English grammatical rule, in Arabic. And many of the English native foreros, who use the Arabic forum, actually love to be able to pay back the help they get in the Arabic forum by helping the Arabic speakers who are learning English.

P.S. You may need to have in mind that the possibility of having someone who can help you in/with Swedish in the Chinese forum is not very high.  And this is the main reason why English is sometimes preferable as a lingua franca. It's just that it isn't a must.


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## 涼宮

cherine said:


> Hi,
> P.S. You may need to have in mind that the possibility of having someone who can help you in/with Swedish in the Chinese forum is not very high.  And this is the main reason why English is sometimes preferable as a lingua franca. It's just that it isn't a must.



I know!  But this isn't about me or something. The matter is about if someone who doesn't know English or her/his target language enough uses another language to ask, like the example I gave; using Swedish to ask about Spanish in the Swedish forum as there is not a forum that says Spanish-any other language.

I sent a message to Mike, I hope he sees this thread soon.


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## cherine

Yes, let's wait for Mike's opinion.

But I really believe there's nothing wrong with asking about Spanish in the Swedish forum. The rule about having the title in English means -as far as I understand- putting the language' name in English, not the whole title nor the posting language itself.
I'll also alert the Nordic Languages mod about this.


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## xiaolijie

We do sometimes have questions-in-Chinese about other languages in the Chinese forum. I think I deal with them slightly differently depending on the nature of the questions. Say if the question is about something in English:
-If the OP doesn't appear to be good enough in English or if the reply in Chinese would benefit them better, I'd take the question.
-If the OP appears to be good enough in English or the question would lead deep into English matters, I'd recommend the OP to go to the English forum to benefit better help there.

By the way, sometimes some Chinese members tell me that they'd prefer asking questions in the Chinese forum because they're afraid of moderators in non-Chinese forum dealling with them harshly because of mistakes due to language/ culture barrier (inexperienced in another language/culture environment, and therefore more likely to make mistakes, etc.). I find cases like these difficult.


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## hanne

I agree with what Cherine and Xiao have said so far.

In Nordic Languages we'll accept a thread that either discusses one of our five target languages (discussion can then be in any language you wish), or uses one of them for discussion. In practice, in the latter case, it will often be about translation from one of the five into whatever else, or vice versa. If it is discussion about e.g. Spanish grammar, I'd usually recommend to ask in the according forum, but as there's no Spanish forum allowing discussion in Swedish, it is ok to post it in Nordic.

Someone learning Swedish can always ask on the Nordic languages forum, as we accept discussion in any languages - although asking in one of the major European languages will usually increase the number of people who will be able to answer.


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