Re: [Gretl-devel] some bugs and issues
On Sun, 29 Jan 2012, Talha Yalta wrote:
I find this final solution to be rather disappointing (although it
is
better than a bug). I also consider it discouraging for translators
putting considerable effort localizing gretl. But maybe that is also
unnecessary. Maybe everyone should learn English to do econometrics
:-P
Talha, I have the feeling that perhaps you're over-ideologizing this
issue. Let me explain. I may be wrong, but to my ears you sound like
someone (the little good guy) who thinks he's fighting a survival battle
against Anglo-Saxon cultural imperialism (the big bad guy).
It's not that way. There are historical reasons why English has become the
world's vehicle language, like Latin used to be in medieval Europe and
Swahili has been for several centuries in South-East Africa. You say
"Maybe everyone should learn English to do econometrics" with what sounds
to me like an obvious rhetorical intent. Well, in my view the above
assertion is (as Allin pointed out) true to a very large extent: you don't
_need_ to be a fluent English speaker to run a regression, obviously. But
on the other hand, econometrics is not basic arithmetic; it is a subject
that, as far as I know, is not taught outside of universities. If this is
the case, I would find it bizarre if someone with a university-level
education from any country in the world was unable to understand (let
alone speak) the _lingua franca_ of the 21st century. If a university
system allows their students to obtain a degree without a basic knowlegde
of THE vehicular language any cultured person expects to use with
foreigners, then something is very wrong (and this may well happen in MY
country, so I know what I'm talking about).
And finally, let me mention something else I profoundly believe in: the
formative power of being exposed to foreign languages. Having a decent
command of a language other than the one you learned as a child is very,
very, very good for your brain at a very general level. I pity those poor
English mother-tongue speakers who lack the incentive the rest of the
world has to open their minds in such a beautiful way.
Sorry for the rant :-)
Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti
Dipartimento di Economia
Università Politecnica delle Marche
r.lucchetti(a)univpm.it
http://www.econ.univpm.it/lucchetti