If EA wants to be genuinely, globally inclusive, we need to remember that many of our members learned English as a second language, and that it’s important for us all to write as clearly as possible.
According to sources like this, about 400 million people worldwide are native English speakers, but over 1.2 billion have learned to read English as a second language. So that’s about a 3:1 ratio of non-native to native speakers. This is worth bearing in mind when native-speaking people (like me) are writing on EA forum, and potentially being read by many non-native speakers.
It’s also important to reign in our natural tendency to IQ-signal through displaying our vocabulary size, capacity for complex grammar, and subtlety of verbal reasoning. These can make us sound smart to people with similar levels of English fluency and domain expertise, but they inhibit our ability to communicate with wider audiences.
Well said, though I think your comment could use that advice :)
Specific phrases/words I noticed: reign in, tendancy, bearing in mind, inhibit, subtlety, IQ-signal (?).
I’m non-native and I do know these words, but I’m mostly native level at this point (spent half my life in an English speaking country) I think many non-native speakers won’t be as familiar
Michał -- thanks for this reality check.
If EA wants to be genuinely, globally inclusive, we need to remember that many of our members learned English as a second language, and that it’s important for us all to write as clearly as possible.
According to sources like this, about 400 million people worldwide are native English speakers, but over 1.2 billion have learned to read English as a second language. So that’s about a 3:1 ratio of non-native to native speakers. This is worth bearing in mind when native-speaking people (like me) are writing on EA forum, and potentially being read by many non-native speakers.
It’s also important to reign in our natural tendency to IQ-signal through displaying our vocabulary size, capacity for complex grammar, and subtlety of verbal reasoning. These can make us sound smart to people with similar levels of English fluency and domain expertise, but they inhibit our ability to communicate with wider audiences.
Well said, though I think your comment could use that advice :) Specific phrases/words I noticed: reign in, tendancy, bearing in mind, inhibit, subtlety, IQ-signal (?).
I’m non-native and I do know these words, but I’m mostly native level at this point (spent half my life in an English speaking country) I think many non-native speakers won’t be as familiar
Ariel—Fair point! I agree. My posts was intended to be subtly self-satirizing, but I should have made that clearer.
Ah right, I had that thought but wasn’t sure, makes sense!