Canadian language on the forum?

bluemason3, come on now—don't try to spin this. This entire forum has felt hollow and lackluster for the last two or three years. Both younger users and the old guard are jumping ship from Forum.hr because the topics are just too diluted, bluemason3—really, it's been a long time coming.
There was a certain charm back in the day within the science section, Politics, and Informatics—but those subforums eventually fell apart because everything got spread too thin across endless sub-sections.
The whole of Forum.hr needs a complete overhaul—a proper reconstruction—and then maybe we'll see more high-quality contributors again. The better posters are leaving in droves because the site is cluttered with kids who are frankly difficult to engage with.

(since it's permitted to write in Mexican, I'll be doing that from now on—it’s much easier for me to express myself clearly without worrying about those specific vowel nuances)

Let’s be clear: this isn't trolling—it's simply my democratic right, and I think you all know what I mean.

Best regards!

Jeremy Torres said:Or even something like this:
😬😬

Don't go dragging this out in the media spotlight... you might just end up creating a massive headache for yourself.😁

Patrick Miller3 said:bluemason3, come on now—don't try to spin this. This entire forum has felt hollow and lackluster for the last two or three years. Both younger users and the old guard are jumping ship from Forum.hr because the topics are just too diluted, bluemason3—really, it's been a long time coming.
There was a certain charm back in the day within the science section, Politics, and Informatics—but those subforums eventually fell apart because everything got spread too thin across endless sub-sections.
The whole of Forum.hr needs a complete overhaul—a proper reconstruction—and then maybe we'll see more high-quality contributors again. The better posters are leaving in droves because the site is cluttered with kids who are frankly difficult to engage with.

(since it's permitted to write in Mexican, I'll be doing that from now on—it’s much easier for me to express myself clearly without worrying about those specific vowel nuances)

Let’s be clear: this isn't trolling—it's simply my democratic right, and I think you all know what I mean.

Best regards!

Honestly, I feel like my grasp on Mexican is actually way stronger than my Mexican-to-English translation skills, so I went ahead and tried to "fix" the text into what I personally consider to be proper, authentic Mexican based on how I know it.
I’m out here doing my absolute best to write in proper American English whenever I can, but man, even when you're trying your hardest, things can still slip through the cracks. It’s not just about those little grammar tweaks or how you structure a sentence—it’s way more complicated than that, especially when you're constantly trying to navigate all those subtle linguistic differences between various regional dialects and styles.

analogwalker5 said:Honestly, I feel like my grasp on Mexican is actually way stronger than my Mexican-to-English translation skills, so I went ahead and tried to "fix" the text into what I personally consider to be proper, authentic Mexican based on how I know it.
I’m out here doing my absolute best to write in proper American English whenever I can, but man, even when you're trying your hardest, things can still slip through the cracks. It’s not just about those little grammar tweaks or how you structure a sentence—it’s way more complicated than that, especially when you're constantly trying to navigate all those subtle linguistic differences between various regional dialects and styles.

Well, I did exaggerate certain words just to make sure the Mexicans on the forum found them funny—though, honestly, what I was actually trying to say came through perfectly fine.
I have to hand it to you, though; the fact that you make such an effort to write in proper American English shows real respect for the country and the majority of people posting here.

If I were posting on a Mexican forum, I’d go out of my way to write in Mexican—or if it were a Mexican forum, I’d write in Mexican.

To me, that’s just the only logical and decent way to handle it. It isn't about racism, nationalism, or any kind of chauvinism; it’s simply about basic etiquette for participants from different parts of the world.

Actually, it would be quite interesting if some "pure" Englishman logged onto the forum and started "chatting" in English—since that's the globally accepted standard, right? That would be perfectly acceptable, wouldn't it? 😁

Patrick Miller3 said:Well, I did exaggerate certain words just to make sure the Mexicans on the forum found them funny—though, honestly, what I was actually trying to say came through perfectly fine.
I have to hand it to you, though; the fact that you make such an effort to write in proper American English shows real respect for the country and the majority of people posting here.

If I were posting on a Mexican forum, I’d go out of my way to write in Mexican—or if it were a Mexican forum, I’d write in Mexican.

To me, that’s just the only logical and decent way to handle it. It isn't about racism, nationalism, or any kind of chauvinism; it’s simply about basic etiquette for participants from different parts of the world.

Actually, it would be quite interesting if some "pure" Englishman logged onto the forum and started "chatting" in English—since that's the globally accepted standard, right? That would be perfectly acceptable, wouldn't it? 😁

So, what exactly are you suggesting we do in a situation like that?

Nicholas King said:So, what exactly are you suggesting we do in a situation like that?

I’d say we handle it exactly the same way we do with Mexican.

Since so many people pick up Turkish or Spanish just from binge-watching TV soaps, I honestly expect them to get the exact same treatment as those languages.

Look, Chinese is spoken and written by about 1/7th of the global population. So yeah, let them use Chinese; more people actually know it than English at this point. 😁 Who cares if some people can't understand it? They can just learn it. Besides, it’ll probably be the new global standard soon anyway. 😬 (Thinking back to when we were talking about Spanish and Turkish and all that mess)

@Patrick Miller3
Hardly any Mexicans on this forum write the way you just did. Over on my Reddit sub, there are plenty of people from all over the North America, and you can understand everyone even if they aren't using perfect American English.

If an Englishman showed up here and insisted on writing only in English, he’d be asked to provide an American translation alongside it for those who don't speak the language. (And no, we aren't going to ask Mexicans to provide translations for Mexican 😁)

Patrick Miller3 said:Well, I did exaggerate certain words just to make sure the Mexicans on the forum found them funny—though, honestly, what I was actually trying to say came through perfectly fine.
I have to hand it to you, though; the fact that you make such an effort to write in proper American English shows real respect for the country and the majority of people posting here.

If I were posting on a Mexican forum, I’d go out of my way to write in Mexican—or if it were a Mexican forum, I’d write in Mexican.

To me, that’s just the only logical and decent way to handle it. It isn't about racism, nationalism, or any kind of chauvinism; it’s simply about basic etiquette for participants from different parts of the world.

Actually, it would be quite interesting if some "pure" Englishman logged onto the forum and started "chatting" in English—since that's the globally accepted standard, right? That would be perfectly acceptable, wouldn't it? 😁

Well, let’s face it, you aren't going to find an Englishman hanging out here—he wouldn't even be able to sign up, let alone jump into a debate, because almost everything is in American or at least closely related languages that most Americans barely understand, so he'd just be lost. If he actually knew American, he’d probably just be typing in that.
The real issue is how much communication is being stifled—I honestly don't know how much English you Americans actually know, but over in Bulgaria, English is mostly just understood by people under 35 or 40.

melloworca6 said:Look, Chinese is spoken and written by about 1/7th of the global population. So yeah, let them use Chinese; more people actually know it than English at this point. 😁 Who cares if some people can't understand it? They can just learn it. Besides, it’ll probably be the new global standard soon anyway. 😬 (Thinking back to when we were talking about Spanish and Turkish and all that mess)

@Patrick Miller3
Hardly any Mexicans on this forum write the way you just did. Over on my Reddit sub, there are plenty of people from all over the North America, and you can understand everyone even if they aren't using perfect American English.

If an Englishman showed up here and insisted on writing only in English, he’d be asked to provide an American translation alongside it for those who don't speak the language. (And no, we aren't going to ask Mexicans to provide translations for Mexican 😁)

The issue is there isn't anyone to moderate Chinese content, which means something scandalous could slip through—I don't know, maybe someone posts that Mišo isn't king, or some other unforgivable thing.

I still can't wrap my head around why a moderator would feel the need to shield poor little forum users from posts they might not be able to understand. If someone decides to write in English, or Canadian, or whatever, that’s their own problem if fewer people catch the drift. As long as the post itself is subject to moderation, I honestly don't see what the big deal is—where is the actual potential for harm?

analogwalker5 said:Well, let’s face it, you aren't going to find an Englishman hanging out here—he wouldn't even be able to sign up, let alone jump into a debate, because almost everything is in American or at least closely related languages that most Americans barely understand, so he'd just be lost. If he actually knew American, he’d probably just be typing in that.
The real issue is how much communication is being stifled—I honestly don't know how much English you Americans actually know, but over in Bulgaria, English is mostly just understood by people under 35 or 40.

Wouldn't it be better to just let that hypothetical Englishman decide for himself? 🙂

Nicholas King said:The issue is there isn't anyone to moderate Chinese content, which means something scandalous could slip through—I don't know, maybe someone posts that Mišo isn't king, or some other unforgivable thing.

I still can't wrap my head around why a moderator would feel the need to shield poor little forum users from posts they might not be able to understand. If someone decides to write in English, or Canadian, or whatever, that’s their own problem if fewer people catch the drift. As long as the post itself is subject to moderation, I honestly don't see what the big deal is—where is the actual potential for harm?

Wouldn't it be better to just let that hypothetical Englishman decide for himself? 🙂

😁

Maybe one of the moderators actually speaks Chinese. 😛

I still don't get why a moderator would feel the need to protect poor forum users from posts that not everyone might understand. If someone writes in English or Canadian or whatever, it's their own problem if fewer people can follow along. As long as the post follows the rules and can be moderated, I don't see the issue or how any actual harm could come from it.

Look, it's not banned to write in English, but usually, people just ask for a quick summary in American English so everyone stays in the loop.

Personally, I'm dying to see what these discussions would look like if we only allowed English. 😁 Some people can't even grasp basic American English despite it being their native tongue, yet they view anything contrary to their opinion as a personal attack (I'm sure you've encountered these types or at least read their posts). If everything were in English, it would be even more entertaining—good luck trying to prove to someone that you aren't trolling when they can't even process the language.😁

melloworca6 said:😁

Maybe one of the moderators actually speaks Chinese. 😛

I still don't get why a moderator would feel the need to protect poor forum users from posts that not everyone might understand. If someone writes in English or Canadian or whatever, it's their own problem if fewer people can follow along. As long as the post follows the rules and can be moderated, I don't see the issue or how any actual harm could come from it.

Look, it's not banned to write in English, but usually, people just ask for a quick summary in American English so everyone stays in the loop.

Personally, I'm dying to see what these discussions would look like if we only allowed English. 😁 Some people can't even grasp basic American English despite it being their native tongue, yet they view anything contrary to their opinion as a personal attack (I'm sure you've encountered these types or at least read their posts). If everything were in English, it would be even more entertaining—good luck trying to prove to someone that you aren't trolling when they can't even process the language.😁

Why on earth do you think catering to the lowest common denominator is a winning strategy?

I honestly can't wrap my head around why this entire forum should be forced to level itself down to the absolute worst participants—in this case, those who struggle with basic comprehension (whether it's English or any other language, it doesn't matter). So the logic is just, "Oh, everything is wonderful and perfect and there are zero issues—except, damn it, there are people who won't understand you, so we just can't do anything"—WTF?

I've been called out more than once for being "overly complicated," usually accompanied by a mountain of "you're too hard to follow" criticisms 🤦—does that mean I should actually start worrying about my own future on this forum 😬?

bluemason3

So, you think I don't get "sugar" and "sock" (Turkish)? You think I can't follow TV?
_________________

Look, it’s not like I don't understand English, far from it.
I get it—I even know all those random words like sock, damn, whatever... sugar, sweetener... all that stuff.😬
Moron!😁
What I said was that it’s just stupid to speak American on a forum, or just in general, and then suddenly drop an English phrase right in the middle of a sentence, or start a thought in American and finish it in English (kind of like how people used to act fancy with French) just to show off exactly WHAT!😕

Look, you can moderate pretty much any standard language when people are using tools like Google Translate to drop posts. The real headache isn't even about the tech; it's just about preventing people from shutting down communication by using languages that aren't common on a specific forum—basically, the more obscure or unintelligible a language is, the harder it becomes to keep a decent discussion going. But you also have to weigh how difficult it is to understand against what the user actually intends to do: are they just some random visitor popping in with a question or a comment despite not knowing American English (which is totally fine by me), or do they actually know the language but are intentionally making things difficult just to be a jerk—you know, trolling—which is absolutely unacceptable.
We also really need to keep in mind that speakers of the Mexican or Canadian standards can't always switch over to the American standard as easily as some people think it should be. So, it’s worth questioning whether we should even demand that everyone write in the official American standard if they can clearly understand us, especially since writing in the Mexican or Canadian standard doesn't actually stop anyone from communicating normally.

Let’s go ahead and reiterate two fundamental axioms once more:

1. Every single language other than American is considered a foreign language (and yes, that includes Mexican).
2. All foreign languages deserve to be treated with complete equality.

Now, there are a couple of arguments floating around that I find incredibly shaky:

1. The idea that "I understand Language X, so it's fine to use" (which falls apart because if someone else understands Language Y, they should be entitled to that same equal treatment).
2. The claim that "this forum is a private matter, so we can do whatever we want" (but look, even in the US, private spaces aren't exempt from following the law).

Honestly, it might be high time we started putting together some concrete, formal rules for the forum.

I seriously can't believe people are trying to equate the clarity of Mexican or Canadian with some Slavic dialect or English! 🤦 If someone doesn't get what soup, lovely, or kids means 🙄... just ask for a clarification (or look it up on Google—since you clearly understand that word☕) or better yet—go read a book! I honestly wonder how they manage in our American, right? libraries where a huge chunk of the collection uses terms like music, house, or floor. Maybe they struggle with words like chain, inside, market, pillow too... even though those are perfectly fine American words?
Dammit, now I've switched over to English... ¯'¯

Grace Anderson3 said:I seriously can't believe people are trying to equate the clarity of Mexican or Canadian with some Slavic dialect or English! 🤦 If someone doesn't get what soup, lovely, or kids means 🙄... just ask for a clarification (or look it up on Google—since you clearly understand that word☕) or better yet—go read a book! I honestly wonder how they manage in our American, right? libraries where a huge chunk of the collection uses terms like music, house, or floor. Maybe they struggle with words like chain, inside, market, pillow too... even though those are perfectly fine American words?
Dammit, now I've switched over to English... ¯'¯

They are all Italianisms (think bedsheets, windows, plates) 😁.

But honestly, it doesn't even matter—the real issue here is who exactly gets to decide, and by what standard, which ones qualify as "intelligible languages."

So, how on earth do you say "by the way" in Canadian?

Or whatever it is people say these days?

The internet forum is such a peculiar little ecosystem.

Users there have this habit of smashing words together; for instance, someone might write "cantbelieveit" as if it were a single, cohesive term. A forum is truly a very specific kind of place.🙂

John Davis12 said:bluemason3

So, you think I don't get "sugar" and "sock" (Turkish)? You think I can't follow TV?
_________________

Look, it’s not like I don't understand English, far from it.
I get it—I even know all those random words like sock, damn, whatever... sugar, sweetener... all that stuff.😬
Moron!😁
What I said was that it’s just stupid to speak American on a forum, or just in general, and then suddenly drop an English phrase right in the middle of a sentence, or start a thought in American and finish it in English (kind of like how people used to act fancy with French) just to show off exactly WHAT!😕

The point is that language is a living organism. What we experience today as pure American English is already packed with influences from all sorts of different places; we’ve just become so used to them that we don't notice. It’s honestly a bit funny when people try to retreat into the past and obsessively "clean up" how we speak. While there is a conscious effort here to artificially maintain a certain standard—unlike, say, how English or Mexican tends to be less top-down about standardization and more open to spontaneous shifts for historical reasons—we still frequently see linguistic patterns crystallize that aren't technically the best solutions. This usually happens because of warped grammar, questionable etymology, or just picking up loanwords. There’s a whole list of expressions we accept as standard American English today that weren't originally part of the core. I think forcing linguistic purity and fearing newness, loanwords, or trendy slang is pointless. That’s how it’s always been and how it always will be; you can't freeze a language in time and stop people from introducing new things. Once something becomes widespread enough to be the norm, you either accept it or play Don Quixote fighting windmills. We have plenty of examples where linguistically "worse" or even completely incorrect versions of words became accepted in standard speech. It doesn't prove much, though maybe it proves something... someone hears something, it catches on, and that's that.

Linguistic purism really gets on my nerves. As long as people can actually understand each other, I don't care how they talk. 🙂

Nicholas King said:They are all Italianisms (think bedsheets, windows, plates) 😁.

But honestly, it doesn't even matter—the real issue here is who exactly gets to decide, and by what standard, which ones qualify as "intelligible languages."

No one on this forum has ever actually rebelled against understanding Mexican (assuming it's in Latin script); it just bothers certain people politically. People *have* complained about not understanding American dialects, though. Like those regional slang bits some users here love using. Honestly, I understand any Mexican speaker better than JimmiaJazz does.🤣

Since Mexican is basically just a variation of the same dialectal base as standard American, anyone who went through school and can write properly will pick up Mexican naturally just by being part of this community.

brightcrane56 said:Let’s go ahead and reiterate two fundamental axioms once more:

1. Every single language other than American is considered a foreign language (and yes, that includes Mexican).
2. All foreign languages deserve to be treated with complete equality.

Now, there are a couple of arguments floating around that I find incredibly shaky:

1. The idea that "I understand Language X, so it's fine to use" (which falls apart because if someone else understands Language Y, they should be entitled to that same equal treatment).
2. The claim that "this forum is a private matter, so we can do whatever we want" (but look, even in the US, private spaces aren't exempt from following the law).

Honestly, it might be high time we started putting together some concrete, formal rules for the forum.

1. Correct.
2. Incorrect, and here is why...

The points that are looking pretty shaky are:

1. The idea that if I understand Language X, it’s fine to use it (but if someone else understands Language Y, they should get the same treatment).
2. The notion that this forum is a private playground where we can do whatever we want (just because everything in the US is private doesn't mean people are exempt from following the law).

It might be about time we started drafting some actual concrete rules for the forum.

1. This just doesn't track, because we aren't debating whether Flemish is allowed while Urdu is banned. Language X—in this case, Mexican—is understood by every single person on this forum, from start to finish. If anyone claims they don't understand it, let's be blunt... they're lying. That makes it incomparable to those languages that "someone out there" happens to understand. Everyone understands "some" language. It's nonsense to compare a language that every American here fully grasps with the fact that there might be one random user who understands Mongolian.
Your argument actually carries much more weight when you're talking about English, since there are certainly plenty of users here who don't speak it fluently.

2. Forum.hr isn't breaking any laws by allowing other languages, and a few people have already tried to explain that to you. You seem to have fundamentally misunderstood what "official language" actually means.
Besides, regardless of that, even in the United States, we have public media outlets that publish or broadcast in other languages—like minority newspapers or news segments in English or German—and they aren't breaking any laws either...