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  2. The Multiple Languages of Science(Blogs)

The Multiple Languages of Science(Blogs)

By retrospectacle on December 16, 2007.

Page 3.14 asks, in a poll which you should all go participate in, which language should ScienceBlogs branch into next?

I voted that the next ScienceBlogs should be in Chinese, due to their up-and-coming science programs as well as the massive amounts of people who could stand to benefit from educational blogs in Mandarin. However, you have the inevitable down-side of censorship in China itself. My parents (who live in Suzhou) cannot read my blog, or any ScienceBlog here, due to censorship. Why? I have no idea. The other angle is that China is seperated by many spoken language barriers, but written Chinese is all the same. In addition to spoken Mandarin and Cantonese (mostly in south China and Hong Kong) there are dozens of regional dialects that are unintelligable to outsiders. There is a dialect in my parent's town--Suzhouese--and those from Shanghai and Suzhou have a difficult, if not impossible, time understanding one another. So, videos and any 'live' content would present a difficulty-- what dialect do you choose? While still only a fraction of China is "online," that fraction represents more internet users than all American internet users.

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China is separated by many spoken language , but written Chinese is all the same.In India is also separated by many spoken language and written also in different languages.