Comments on: Map of CT readers

By: Ehud

Ehud — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 13:16:57 +0000

Kieranת I hope you are right (as in “not wrong”)…

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 13:10:11 +0000

Red state-Blue state, anyone

I think you’re seeing a population effect.

By: Kathryn Cramer

Kathryn Cramer — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 12:56:47 +0000

Any way to automate this so visitors get added by IP #s?

By: Ehud

Ehud — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 12:47:35 +0000

Look at the geographical distribution of readers in the US. Red state-Blue state, anyone?

By: John Quiggin

John Quiggin — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 22:20:31 +0000

In my subfield, which is dominated by Europeans and Israelis, it would be impossible to function without passable English. The conferences are all in English, both the formal sessions and the informal events.

However, this isn’t always an asset for soi-disant Anglophones. I have a strong Australian accent and before one presentation, the chair said “I remind Professor Quiggin that the official language of this conference is English”.

By: Isabel

Isabel — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 13:44:20 +0000

When I was a researcher (in molecular biology, a field where virtually all the important publications are in English) I’ve met many people that mastered the technical language so that they could read text books etc, and publish (with heavy revising by a native speaker), in English, without really knowing the language. I even remember a Polish lady learning her presentation in a conference by heart… and praying that she wouldn’t get any questions! This was true in an important French research institution, but not totally unknown in, say, Portuguese research institutions.
Granted, this was some 20 years ago, and since then, French as an international language lost a lot to English, as I can see in my current job as a translator in a international organization. Still, I don’t think those people, or their younger and more anglo-proficient counterparts, would be able to read CT, or have that kind of curiosity. I’ve read somewhere that the internets are having the opposite effect that one would imagine: the proportion of English sites to non English sites is shrinking, and the number of non-English blogs is explosing. I think it is probably difficult to appreciate the resillience and importance of cultural and linguistic diversity when seen from an anglo-saxon, and even more, american point of view. But my theory is that this “globalization” is just a thin venner on top of very strong cultural diversities, and I’m convinced that the pervasiveness of (more or less pidgin) English, a language notoriously difficult to master in depth but very easy to use at a basic level as lingua franca, does not really correspond to the deep cultural knowledge that people expect. Which results in a lot of misunderstood misunderstandings.

By: harry b

harry b — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 12:49:30 +0000

My sense is that, yes, you can be an academic without English. English helps, and scientific English is easy to pick up (any given discipline uses a relatively small, specialised, vocabulary). My aural French is good enough to understand 5-year-olds and Economists, but that’s about it…

But you might also note that some things are true, and known to be be true by the people who deny them, even as they deny them in order to express their irritation….

By: Slocum

Slocum — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 11:43:22 +0000

“I thought the educated classes in continental Europe were partly absorbed into the anglosphere some time ago. Can you still be an academic in Europe without being competent in English?”

Say that to the French educated classes. And maybe even the German ones.

I say that because I have a good friend who’s been an academic in Europe for many years (now in France). My sense from him is that you really cannot be an academic (in the sciences at least) without competence in English. Is that incorrect?

By: luci phyrr

luci phyrr — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 21:58:58 +0000

Thing seems buggy. After you zoom in on your location, and then wanna see who lives near you (Bay area) when you click on their bubble the map skips to some random location. Hmmm….

By: Jussi

Jussi — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 21:41:05 +0000

“Canada and Alaska look enormous, not to mention Siberia and Greenland…”

Well, they ARE enormous, Martin :-)

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 21:29:30 +0000

The map projection is weird (seems to be the old Mercator projection). The Scandinavian countries, Canada and Alaska look enormous, not to mention Siberia and Greenland…

By: Jussi

Jussi — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 21:25:23 +0000

“Say that to the French educated classes. And maybe even the German ones”

Say it to any of us

By: Isabel

Isabel — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 20:55:24 +0000

“I thought the educated classes in continental Europe were partly absorbed into the anglosphere some time ago. Can you still be an academic in Europe without being competent in English?”

Say that to the French educated classes. And maybe even the German ones.

By: ogmb

ogmb — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 18:47:24 +0000

Man, what an East Coast bias.

By: Slocum

Slocum — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 17:36:12 +0000

Well, obviously this place is anglophonic-centric, just because of the language. I’m actually surprised that continental Europe is represented so well.

I thought the educated classes in continental Europe were partly absorbed into the anglosphere some time ago. Can you still be an academic in Europe without being competent in English?

Curious, though, that there’s not a single pin stuck in India.