[quoting Jacobson, 27 Feb 96] I just left IBM. They are now all running around with hand-held communications devices. Offices have been eliminated so that you are now like a traveling salesman. The future is HERE!
Janet might have misread my message. I referred to "such people," meaning Third World/Developing Countries.
My concern is exactly that--the IBM environment and culture are light-years removed from Third World conditions where most people either do not even know or don't have electricity yet. And THAT is not going to change significantly in the next five to ten years, unless IBM starts helping to erect power pylons in Africa tomorrow.
The future might be there with you in the USA, but it is definitely not even a Flying Dutchman (or American) on the horizon yet for most of our continent and the rest of the Third World.
South Africa is in the rather remarkable position that a smallish, sophisticated First World component and a large Developing/Third World section are supposed to meet somewhere. Could IT help to bridge the gap? (I believe it (IT) can, in a country like ours.)
I do not propose to have solutions--I merely ask the questions. Anyway, thanks for reminding me of how far we are behind! ;-)
Secondly, allow me to confirm what Steve Tripp [27 Feb 96] wrote about the difficulty of transcription and translation. An anecdote:
Two students walked into my office and in so-called Black South African English asked where they could get information on "mets-n-signs." I asked them to repeat, twice. I still heard "mets-n-signs." I told them that we did not offer any courses in "medicine science" or "medical science" or whatever at our institution. They explained that it was a remedial/bridging course that they wanted to attend. I then realized that they were referring to a Maths and Science course offered by our Teacher Training Department.
The fact that I was born here and have been teaching speakers of that particular form of English for years could not save me from misunderstanding. Good luck to the machine that can handle all the varieties of the Queen's language! And we haven't even touched upon idiolect yet...