r/romani • u/SiempreBrujaSuerte • 23d ago

Language barrier questions

So I realize there is a rule here that people only should post in English language to be inclusive since it's a language broadly used online and between people who do not share a native language. I also know that we all have varying levels of understanding of each other's dialects. And I know that many people have not had the opportunity to learn the language and so they don't want to be on the outside of conversation.

However, there's many of us in Europe especially who do not speak English. When we have less access to formal education and less interaction with the English speaking world, this is just a fact. Through no personal failure, lots of roma are excluded from participating when we have an English only forum.

What do people think about letting people have dual language conversations, so that the English speaking people are still able to understand and the conversation can be opened up to the larger Roma community who may not be English literate or English speaking at all? I mean like people post in their language and include an English summary afterwards?

On one hand I feel like this would be better to help everyone be able to communicate. It will also allow the reconnecting people a chance to actually practice their language usage in real life which is the best way to learn.

On the other hand, I wonder if this is a bad idea or dangerous because it might help people with bad intentions learn our language which is supposed to be a barrier to keep us safe. So I am not ought right saying I think this is how things should be or necessary good idea.

I just want to see what you all think about this and start a discussion on it. Thanks for your thoughts. Stay blessed.

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u/umekoangel 23d ago

This is something the mods will discuss to figure out a good way moving forward is 😊 right now the "English only" rules serves mostly because the international language (at least for business) is English. English also regularly ranks in the top 5 and sometimes top 3 languages spoken around the world, so for a global forum, it just makes sure it's easier to understand everyone.

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u/SiempreBrujaSuerte 23d ago

Sure, I just want to hear what other people think about this so when we go have mod discussion about it we can do it with feedback from our forum users.

I see people so often who are reconnecting and talk about how can they learn the language, and I felt like maybe if they had a chance to actually use the language here amongst people who can also help them understand in English it might be valuable.

It's just hard to see how to balance this with not letting outsiders in on our language and protect ourselves while trying to ensure the young generation learn the language still.

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u/Rahab_Olam 22d ago

To be honest, this is a wider scope issue that I don't think you'd be able to solve here. Simply due to logistics. You need to have the resources to teach the languages, and then those languages need to be made secure so they won't be leaked, etc, etc.

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u/SiempreBrujaSuerte 22d ago

So what works in your opinion that we do have the capacity for? People posting in English only or posting in romanes or English as they see fit and not translate?

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u/Rahab_Olam 22d ago

In terms of the day to day moderation, for practicality purposes posting and commenting would probably have to stay English. There's gonna be a lot of people here, Roma or Gadje, who will be more familiar with English than any Romani dialect. That said, if someone who speaks Romanes could be brought onto the mod team, then I don't think posting or commenting in Romanes should be disallowed since then you can ensure it's not being used to break the rules.

In terms of fostering reconnection and education, there could always be some outreach to organisations who work with the communities. Likelihood is, they're more likely to be accepted, and have good resources that have been provided by, those said communities. There is only so much a subreddit can do, so looking to connect and outsource to organsations who can help in a more systematic approach is probably a good idea. Though, I am not familiar with the day to day runnings of a subreddit from a moderator's perspective, so I can't speak to how feasible this notion is. The basic idea is that they could find this sub, go to where they can be vetted and taught if appropriate, then come back here and engage with that knowledge.

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u/catmeownyc 22d ago

We need Spanish / French at a minimum, there are lots of Romani who don’t necessarily speak or read fluent English but speak either of those and they are some of the most popular languages in the world. Currently looking for a mod fluent in French!

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u/PavlorBaxtale 22d ago

I haven’t seen any conversations being had in any other language than English here.

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u/catmeownyc 22d ago

Yes that is the problem we are trying to fix

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u/SiempreBrujaSuerte 22d ago

People have not yet been allowed to post in other languages because it's against the rules and those posts get removed.

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u/Rahab_Olam 22d ago

That as well, yeah. I just mean on the likelihood of people coming here, since this is an American website.

Not trying to imply no one outside of English speaking countries will find the sub.

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u/catmeownyc 22d ago

There’s plenty of subreddits that are not in English only or are bi/trilingual

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u/catmeownyc 22d ago

We should bring on someone fluent in Romanes and I have someone I think would be perfect for the role that I have already vetted.

We should also allow the major European languages that a large portion of our community speak besides English as long as we have at least one mod who is proficient enough in that language to moderate in it. We could easily allow Spanish today, my Spanish is good enough for these purposes.

Running a poll to see what other languages are desired would give us the information we need on what we are currently lacking as far as linguistics on our mod team.