Feedback on: Flag as a symbol of language - stupidity or insult?
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Not worth reading
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Just right
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Just right
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Many of your arguments are not worthwhile.
Most people using a language know their own country's flag or the reference country's flag : Austrian, Swiss, Luxemburg people for German, Belgian, Swiss, French Canadian for French...
In those circonstances, flags are mostly considered as symbols rather then national emblems, just like an envelope is the symbol for "contact us".
It's neither stupid nor insulting, as I guess people are grateful to the site's author to provide a version in their mother language.
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Very worth reading
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Too long
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I found the topic was covered in a well thought out fashion.
I agree that with good visuals you
can convey many words.
Also I have experience through my own friends from various nationalities that support the article.
Many Brazilians would be very insulted clicking on a Porugese flag (bearing in mind half or more speakers of said language are Brazilian).
The remarks about clicking on the Union Flag rang particularly true
over here.
At present there is a debate about the use of said flag and the status of the UK in general.
Anyway sorry to ramble, I just wanted to say that I enjoyed the read.
Yours Ori
Worth:
Worth reading
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Too long
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Too technical
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Though worth reading, I do not agree.
You may have a point but I do not connect a flag to a country in the way it is done in the USA.
Officially I am Dutch. Am I proud of that ? NO, I don't even care.
What matters is that I am a human being and that other people are also. Nationalist feelings are alien to me. They are not worth fighting for.
Humanity is what counts.
A flag as a symbol for a language is clear, irrespective of any political meaning. I live in a part of the Netherlands where Frisian is spoken so I hardly ever use Dutch, but I can read and speak it. So a Dutch flag means to me I can understand the language and this is much clearer than a code !!! (however right that may be)
Yours sincerely,
N.Boersma
Worth:
Worth reading
Comments:
There's a quite important issue that you haven't mentioned in your article...
A lot of people have porblems seeiing colours. I am 100% colourblind (this means I see everything in grayscales) I can't see any difference between the flag of France and Belgium (which is my own country!) :)
I'm not sure about the stats, but I thought I've read that 40% of the males are partial colourblind (or have at least slight problems to distinguish colours) and only 6% of females (and, as you know, there a far more men than women that use the internet).
I hope I've made a small contribution to your article and I also want to excuse for my poor English :)
Roel Van Gils
Worth:
Worth reading
Length:
Too long
Technical:
Just right
Comments:
You're right. I've used flags on my website -si.a2000.nl- (reason? because they are everywhere) but I'll replace them by text.
Thanks