Sunday, March 18, 2007

Rethinking the multi-lingual issue

Hi folks,

I'm inclined to agree with Jeff: the language issue, for recent immigrants who speak little to no English, really constrains our system choices. In fact, it seems to go beyond the use of WBT or CBT for our delivery method. Maps of U.S. metropolitan areas are typically written in English, using (for instance) "river" instead of "rio." I'm wondering if we're making this harder than it has to be, or more ambitious than we need to be. Might we focus on English speakers who can't read maps? Might this provide us with more options and make our task more manageable?

I'm not really suggesting having the medium, or range of medium, dictate our message. I guess I'm just wondering how ambitious we need to be on this. Thoughts?

--Joe

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