Is langauge a barriar to peacemaking on the web?

People participate in sites like mepeace are a self selected group who are able (and choose to) communicate in English, even if that is not their native language.

There must be many others out there who would we can encourage to participate but they unable to because they don't feel comfortable communicating in English.

We have been struggling with this issue HotPeace.org, because the mission of the site is precisely to get people talking who normally wouldn't participate in such efforts, so language may be an important concern for the success of the site.

What does everyone think? do you have friends who do not participate because of language barriers?

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Permalink Reply by Yigal D. Kahana on February 26, 2009 at 3:28am

This is a no brainer, Tomer.

Of course language is a barrier to peacemaking! A huge barrier.
Peacemaking absolutely requires good communication....

And yes, some mepeace members I know probably would post more if their English were stronger.

Being multilingual makes one a much more efficient communicator.

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Permalink Reply by ben3dwan on February 26, 2009 at 4:07am

I agree to that Yiqal .....

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Permalink Reply by Yigal D. Kahana on February 26, 2009 at 8:29am

Seems like we agree about a lot, Ben!

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Permalink Reply by Neri Bar-On on February 26, 2009 at 8:58am

We talked that we should ecourage to write in mother tongue so any one who want to express him/her self in Arabic can do that, and some times other translate for the "other language".

in Face to face meeting we ask people to speak their mother tongue and ask other to translate even when the person know English because we express ourselves better in our mother tongue.

we have some people who brought some links to places to learn Hebrew and Arabic.

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Permalink Reply by Basil Keilani on February 26, 2009 at 9:09am

Ben,

Your English is getting better, I have noticed. That's great! Ingleezeetak a7-ssan, ana la7azzit. Hatha mumtaz!

7=ha ah-ssan=better
ingleezee=English ingleezeetak= your English (ak)=your in Arabic

Ana=I/I am. Hatha=this is (Like Ha in Hebrew Ha Aretz=this land) mumtaz=great

I think Ben should continue trying to learn English. it would help if peacemakers teach other their respective languages. Ben struggles very hard when it comes to English. I help by correcting his English since I know how Palestinians think and what grammatical errors they might make, and I am an ESL teacher. I used to teach history before that.

It helps to have people writing in their own native languages and maybe having key translators they can submit their work to like with what I do with Ben.

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Permalink Reply by Neri Bar-On on February 26, 2009 at 9:14am

one day Ben will have to thank the Zionists to help him to get better English ;)
(kidding)

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Permalink Reply by ben3dwan on February 26, 2009 at 12:34pm

hehehehehe ......... :o) Neri .. well maybe not only that ...... and thnx Basil its help that thear is som people like you encureg people like me by take the comment I right seruose ( b-jadeyeh ) as well as the other (+Zionists) respund to my notes even thow its some time funny to read ..... :o)

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Permalink Reply by Basil Keilani on February 26, 2009 at 6:06pm

Ben, yes, there are people like me encouraging you. Also, if you give me your e-mail address, I can correct English. You can always send me a message. I can send you some exercises by using Microsoft Word. Of course, I take your comments seriously. It is important that everyone's ideas be taken seriously, and that we exchange ideas. I really tried to exchange ideas with Dror, Neri, Mick, Mazin, you, Paul, and Melissa.

Translation

He he he Neri, you crack me up, you make me laugh. Well, may not only what you said... And, Basil, hey, thanks it's helpful that there are people like you encouraging people like me by taking the comments that I write seriously (b-jadeyeh seriously in Arabic) and Zionists responded to my comments even though it's somethies funny to read..

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Permalink Reply by Corey Gil-Shuster on February 26, 2009 at 6:16pm

First, google translate has a translation tool so that is an option.
Second, I don't think the issue is just language. I think there are deep cultural differences between the Arab world and the Jewish world. We use words to mean very different things. for example, we both say we want peace. But peace means something different to each side and we then get into arguments because we haven't talked about definitions and understanding. I think there should be key words linked to wiki definitions giving a general Israeli and a general Palestinian perspective for each concept. That may help. I would be happy to help on this.,

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Permalink Reply by Basil Keilani on February 27, 2009 at 11:22am

I somewhat agree with Corey that it is not simply about speaking and writing different languages. It's the words one uses, and that includes Jews who are pro-Palestinian and Palestinians and their arguments and those Israeli Jews who disagree with such a world-view and their supporters. It is not simply, of course, about Arabs having a different world view because many Jewish supporters have a similar view in North America to some of the Arabs when it comes to the issues. I do think Corey brings up some valid points. People can bring up how different people the conflict whether it's a variety of Jewish and Arab groups to do so.