Warning: Long post but it has a point.

I was helping someone with their accounting software. It was giving an error message that the operating system doesn't support the Arabic language.

I thought I could easily fix this. I downloaded the Arabic language pack and set the Windows display language to Arabic. Then, I rebooted. Problem solved, right?... WRONG!

The accounting software still gave the same error. After the reboot, everything was messed up. The start button was on the right side of the screen and everything was backwards and in Arabic.

I couldn't read anything. I couldn't get to the control panel because it no longer recognized the English search "control panel" and I couldn't find it by browsing the icons.

I went to Google translate and found the Arabic equivalent of "control panel". I then fumbled my way through various icons and menu options that are in a totally different order than the English ones.

Finally, I got the display language back to English. Then I simply changed the Unicode language to Arabic, which allowed the accounting software to be displayed in Arabic, and the rest of the computer to have an English display

This experience gave me a lot sympathy for Arabs that have to use English displays.

Anyway. The point is that English speakers have such a HUGE advantage when it comes to technology. Just imagine how tough it is on other language speakers to use English interfaces (video games, tv, smart phones, computers, software, ect...). My friend told me that when Arabs play Xbox, they just keep selecting menu options, which they don't understand, until the game starts. It is by trial and error.

This is why a common language, such as Esperanto, is important. Let's start adding Esperanto support to technology as much as possible.

Just imagine living in world where all science and technology is not in a language you understand. That is how the rest of the world feels.

Alkanadi:The point is that English speakers have such a HUGE advantage when it comes to technology.

They also have a huge disadvantage: everything is in their language.

My son is a digital native and unlike me is growing up with internet always present and any content within reach. He plays games in English. He watches shows in English. He watches movies in English. He watches other people play games on youtube... in English. His English is now (he is 7 years old) way better than mine when I was let's say 18 years old. And in maybe a year or two he will have surpassed my level, because he is not studying from books, but learning it agrammatically as children do.

English speaking kids don't have this advantage. They will most probably not learn a new language, because most of the fun stuff on internet is in that language. The fact that most internet content is in English, is one of the reasons why we have so many English speaking monoglots in the world. There is no pressure, there is no motivation, there is no reward.

Some months ago I went with PLFM (Proyecto Lingüístico Francisco Marroquín) on a field study to the Guatemalan highlands. We were looking for monoglots. We didn't find any. Would the same have happened in Arkansas, North Dakota or Utah?

I agree with nornen - add to that the fact that most English speakers today have little to no knowledge of how a language works (aka grammar) so they often end up unable to express themselves on a high level in their native tongue, to say nothing of acquiring a new one. I am continually shocked by how many otherwise educated anglophone monoglots can't understand what a participle or predicative is. These are the sort of people who become eternaj komencantoj...

In some ways it is really a curse in disguise. And what is going to happen in another quarter-century, when English is no longer the world's premier dominant language but will have to share the stage with Chinese, Castillian and quite possibly Russian?

Tempodivalse:I am continually shocked by how many otherwise educated anglophone monoglots can't understand what a participle or predicative is. These are the sort of people who become eternaj komencantoj...

I don't understand what a participle or a predicative is. I am struggling to grasp these concepts in Esperanto.

I hope I can a void being an "eternal beginner"

Alkanadi:I don't understand what a participle or a predicative is..I hope I can a void being an "eternal beginner"

I wouldn't worry. A language is not the same as the abstractions that some people use to describe it. A participle is a word based on a verb that shows action. Esperanto (one who hopes) is a participle based on the verb esperi. Read lernu's page on participles, with this in mind and it may make better sense.

As for the predicative, in Esperanto it occurs mainly in the context of the "object predicate", a word that occurs after an implicit "to be". Thus, "we painted the door (to be) green" is ni farbis la pordon (esti) verda, whereas "we painted the green door" would be ni farbis la verdan pordon. If you want more here's a wiki article, but I wouldn't spend much time over it.

The correct use of Esperanto is more important than abstractions about it. In my view, you can do well by studying good examples, even without using them.

Tempodivalse:I agree with nornen - add to that the fact that most English speakers today have little to no knowledge of how a language works (aka grammar) so they often end up unable to express themselves on a high level in their native tongue, to say nothing of acquiring a new one. I am continually shocked by how many otherwise educated anglophone monoglots can't understand what a participle or predicative is. These are the sort of people who become eternaj komencantoj...

This is a bit irritating. There are many speakers of other languages who don't fully understand the grammar of their own languages, also many non-English speaking monoglots. It's not necessary to be an academic grammarian to attain high-level fluency and expression in your own language. The idea that people in England (for the sake of argument) don't learn grammar structures at school is a false idea (at least with regard to when I was in school).

It is only sheer necessity that has forced people whose native language is other than English to have to pick up grammar while being drilled in a foreign language; usually English nowadays. The average person on the street in any country stumbles over grammar, even if they have learned another language to some fluency.