English First legal inclusion?

[ricky_id]

Regarding the post of a user who insisted on speaking Indonesian in which he said:

saya bisa ko bahasa inggris cuman males ajah

which means that "I can speak English though, but I'm lazy to use it", which I believe to have violated the posting guidelines under the "Language usage on the Expat Forum", in which it is stated:

posts/threads shouldn't be predominantly in Indonesian because a lot of the newcomer expats will not understand them. Remember that this is a forum for the larger expatriate community, therefore, it is usually most appropriate for postings to be in English. Indonesians are certainly welcome on the forum ... we love having them just as we love living with them. But, remember, the purpose of the Living in Indonesia Expat Forum is to assist expats with their lives in Indonesia.

I personally hold the view that the acts of consistently using languages other than English other than when necessary and/or allowed should be made infractable, since I believe that this will degrade the quality of this forum to be useful to new foreigners unable to converse in Indonesian, which may discourage them from making repeat visits to this forum, let alone recommend this place. Do you guys agree with adding such a legal provision, which hasn't existed yet in the legal code ("What are the real No-No's on the Expat Forum")?

[Nimbus]

I don't think we need to be that strict. If he keeps speaking in Indonesian only, there would naturally be less replies (if any). Well, that is unless we Indonesian speakers keep indulging him.

[Missnaughty]

agree Injun..

[jared1981]

I think there are plenty of other websites for Indonesians or anyone else to speak Indonesian, but this is one of the only websites where expatriates can talk about Indonesia. So for that reason, and also because most expats in Indonesia speak English, the board should be predominately English.

[ricky_id]

Note though, that I said English first instead of English only. That means speaking English no matter how ancur one's is while giving space to some Indonesian expressions which aren't totally avoidable here. I'm afraid that such acts will encourage other users to speak Indonesian and hence make the information there incomprehensible.

[naughtygab]

i second you ricky and jared . personally, i feel like he was not really paying respect toward the non bahasa indonesia speaker. this is the expat forum, if some of the expat wish to learn bahasa, there is a thread for that.. , but writing in bahasa just because he's lazy to write in english is not an act that could be justified IMHO. He could make his own thread in other websites as many as he wishes instead of creating an 'indonesian people thread' that has nothing got to do with bahasa or any other need. ... again... it's just my opinion..

[PhilippeD]

I don't have the energy to read this forum with a French-English + English-Indo dictionary
So... We must make the forum become French first, that will be more easy for [SIZE=4]ME[/SIZE]

Anyway.... If you are too much lazy for write in English, where do you find your energy for write in this forum?

[ricky_id]

I don't have the energy to read this forum with a French-English + English-Indo dictionary

Never found a "Kamus Bahasa Indonesia-Prancis" in Kaltim?

[PhilippeD]

I don't want need to have a library for read this forum!!!

[Vie]

i second you ricky and jared . personally, i feel like he was not really paying respect toward the non bahasa indonesia speaker. this is the expat forum, if some of the expat wish to learn bahasa, there is a thread for that.. , but writing in bahasa just because he's lazy to write in english is not an act that could be justified IMHO. He could make his own thread in other websites as many as he wishes instead of creating an 'indonesian people thread' that has nothing got to do with bahasa or any other need. ... again... it's just my opinion..

i think no need to discuss his motives, it's cleary "spamming" or istilah populernya "iseng". i recall he wrote in one of his post " sebener nya sih cuman iseng ajah posting tulisan begini ternyasta respon nya lucu2" so if we keep encourage him to do that, he will keep posting irrelevant things..

[atlantis]

I think it's best to just ignore him. Don't give him the attention he begs for.
I don't want to be too strict with the language rule for a simple reason: I have in memory this indonesian lady who needed help for a visa problem concerning her husband. Her english was a nightmare and I encouraged her to post in BI "if she felt more comfortable with", so that at least I could get what the hell she was trying to ask. We then have continued in Bahasa Indonesia and in just 3 or 4 posts her problem got solved. It would have never been the case if we would have forced her to express her in english.
Just let the people use the language they are comfortable with. If you speak swahili and post in swahili you limit yourself in the number of posters who can potentially answer you. Same if you post in french or bahasa indonesia.

Again, concerning the user you refer, Ricky, just leave him alone if he bothers you. In five unanswered posts he will be back to kaskus or anywhere else where he can get attention.

[Alia]

Ya, he or others like him will be gone just after several meaningless posts without giving us a time to miss him.

I miss trolls though, where are they ..?

[ricky_id]

Of course we should give some space for some urgent cases in which Indonesian or other languages in which one or more members of this forum is/are capable of speaking is needed for an effective communication, but I believe English should be given a priority. But well I guess we can agree to disagree here, just wanna say what I have in mind to make this forum better, but maybe we have a different vision. No bad feeling.