If I have to answer technical ballet questions in Mandarin - well - sorry folks - but - nihil hoc - nada - nix - nope - nyet -

Interesting development, although I can't type any Chinese myself.<p>[This message has been edited by Kevin Ng (edited November 26, 2000).]

hello! ok, here is the opinion of a french girl <P>I think it's a good idea to have a french forum here, but I don't know how many people speak french here...<P>I don't think that it will be 2 separated worlds, because almost all french people can speak english. Plus, you have really interesting discussions in english. <P>It's a good idea to have a try, just with a thread in french. <BR>And grace is right, french is the language of dance (I don't know why...)<P>alors, pourquoi pas <BR>And not only to speak about the POB, there are tons of others subjects.<P>ça ne coûte pas cher un ptit essai! <P>bye bye!<P><BR>

au revoir, paquita - you won't get much more than that, out of me, en francais!

in the meantime, might i recommend to french speakers, a visit to paquita's french forum -<BR> <A HREF="http://pub23.bravenet.com/forum/show.asp?usernum=1904692072" TARGET=_blank>http://pub23.bravenet.com/forum/show.asp?usernum=1904692072</A>

Paquita - I believe that French is the language of the ballet because it was taken to France by Catherine de Medici, and the ballet was codifed, beloved and grew up at the French Court. <P>France has a very proud tradition nurturing this art form. <P>------------------<BR>Approach life as a dancer approaches the barre, with grace and purpose.<BR>

yes I know, but i'm almost sure that ballet appeared in Italy, no?<P>well, that's not a big problem anyway <BR>And I'm happy with the french words, because it's easier to us french people to learn them lol <P>Please tell me if it will be a french discussion or anything, thanks.<P>kisss!

I've been thinking about this topic for a little while now, and I'm leaning towards "no" to a french/mulitple language section but a big "yes" to a link on the front page to sites like Paquita's chat. <P>My reasons are:<BR>1)none of the Administrators read/write french (I think) so who is going to administrate this section when things get beyond the role of the moderator? I don't think you can just ask a moderator to step into that role.<BR>2)my brain already hurts at the idea of switching comments back and forth from english to french because it would be difficult to decide what to post only in english or french, (i know i spend a lot of time on CD but i don't know if i have the time to double post) although I do come across a lot of contemporary dance reviews in French from Quebec and I often think it's too bad I can't post them at CD, but maybe it would be more productive to post them on a site like Paquita's. Plus, the French and English press do cover a lot of the same stuff in Quebec, especially in Montreal where most people are bilingual anyway and where the majority of the dance community exists.<P>French-canadians that are on the CD board already obviously write in both languages--and while I applaud the idea of inclusivity at some point it seems a bit much (like the Quebec language law thing all over again), I really think it's OK to have an English board where everyone who comes to it has the same access to all of the information, just as it's OK for someone like Paquita to have a french chat. What about when there's a hot topic that's only being discussed in one language, then who decides it's necessary to carry it over to the forum in the other language? For a board run on donated time/resources it seems like it could get very complicated.

marie, in 2) and in your final para, you raise some very good points. however, just one other note - i feel that it was not so much out of anything related to political correctness, that we were looking at more than one language - more so, i felt, it was for the sheer FUN of it! (which, as you say, has to be balanced against the practical aspects, in a way that adds to the board, rather than complicates or diminishes it in any way...) it's nice that someone has been thinking about it - and being in a bilingual society, YOU are well-placed to.

grace, it's hard not to be hypersensitive to the political implications of language in canada, i guess we're a little uptight about it!

...and maybe that has something to do with the high alcohol percentage in our beer

Paquita - you are right the ballet is from originally - Italy - but "grew up" from a folk dance to a court dance in France.