Although a multilingual Web may be desirable on moral and ethical grounds, such
high ideals are not enough to make it other than a reality on a small-scale. As
well as the appropriate technology being available so that the non-English
speaker can go, there is the impact of "electronic commerce" as a major force
that may make multilingualism the most natural path for cyberspace.
Sellers of products and services in the virtual global marketplace into which
the Internet is developing must be prepared to deal with a virtual world that is
just as multilingual as the physical world. If they want to be successful, they
had better make sure they are speaking the languages of their customers!
= How do you see the future?
As a company that derives its very existence from the importance attached to
languages, I believe the future will be an exciting and challenging one. But it
will be impossible to be complacent about our successes and accomplishments.
Technology is already changing at a frenetic pace. Life-long learning is a
strategy that we all must use if we are to stay ahead and be competitive. This
is a difficult enough task in an English-speaking environment. If we add in the
complexities of interacting in a multilingual/multicultural cyberspace, then the
task becomes even more demanding. As well as competition, there is also the
necessity for cooperation -- perhaps more so than ever before.
The seeds of cooperation across the Internet have certainly already been sown.
Our NetGlos Project has depended on the goodwill of volunteer translators from
Canada, U.S., Austria, Norway, Belgium, Israel, Portugal, Russia, Greece,
Brazil, New Zealand and other countries. I think the hundreds of visitors we get
coming to the NetGlos pages everyday is an excellent testimony to the success of
these types of working relationships. I see the future depending even more on
cooperative relationships -- although not necessarily on a volunteer basis.
[FR] Brian King
#Directeur du WorldWide Language Institute, qui est à l'origine de NetGlos,
glossaire multilingue de la terminologie de l'internet
Depuis 1995, à l'initiative du WorldWide Language Institute, NetGlos (The
Multilingual Glossary of Internet Terminology) est réalisé en commun par un
certain nombre de traducteurs et linguistes, dans les langues suivantes:
allemand, anglais, chinois, croate, espagnol, français, grec, hébreu,
hollandais/flamand, italien, maori, norvégien et portugais.
*Entretien du 15 septembre 1998 (entretien original en anglais)
= Quel est l'apport de l'internet dans l'activité de votre organisme?
Le principal service que nous offrons est l'enseignement des langues par le
biais du web. Notre organisme est dans la position unique d'en être venu à
exister du fait de l'internet!
= Comment voyez-vous l'expansion du multilinguisme sur le web?
Bien que l'anglais soit la langue la plus importante du web et de l'internet en
général, je pense que le multilinguisme fait inévitablement partie des futures
orientations du cyberespace.
Voici quelques-uns des éléments qui, à mon sens, permettront que le web
multilingue devienne une réalité: