(weekly article) |
even worse he will fall upon a new greek catharevousa with words that sound completely out of place and funny. | An over 30 years-old user entering the internet for the first time is facing a serious problem with the language. The goal of such a user is not to explore every new oddities but the quick retrieval of information, easy communication and comfortable tele-shopping. But in his efforts, the user should fall upon greek of latin character (the known greeklish), difficult english terminology or even worse he will fall upon a new greek catharevousa (=old Greek officialese) with words that sound completely out of place and funny. Most greek pages on the internet suffer from a serious syndrome of ellinophoby. Many of them are fully written in english while others comprise of a strange mixture of greek and english expecting that the reader should know well the english pronounciation. So, while starting reading normally in one's mother language, a message appears to ask form submittion and the instructions are given in a foreign language. |
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| Some other pages are using a completely absurd greek dialect that only appears on the writings of some studies as a new catharevousa. For example, nobody is using the words "diadiktyon" or "pagosmios istos" when talking about the internet and the web. In Greece, the word istos is used for spiders only... and indeed one could notice the sad eirony since the web and the cobwebs are doubly related and they refer to the negled of frequent update for many greek pages. I believe that the second category is worse to the first while full greek support for pages is the best possible approach when we address to Greeks. Of course that requires, except of the correct writing of texts, the full translation of data entry forms and the programs we are using on our central computer. It also demands a common sense so that we can be aware of the correct and widely used terminology so that we do not end on the catharevousa of "ptykos disc". | nobody is using the words "diadiktyon" or "pagosmios istos" when talking about the internet and the web |
right support of greek should help on the quick adaptation and the growth of trust | A true greek environment is not limited on the content of the pages but it also goes to the reports of the various programs on the page, the error messages and of course the texts that describe the pictures. Those "invisible" elements are of course the responsibility of the programmer. To make a truly greek page then, all those who have an influence on the content should first come to an agreement for a common terminology but the should also cooperate so that there will be not a single latin character. A good example for such a cooperation is the bulletin board "Blabla" which interacts with the user by greek messages. Those environments which use the greek language in full are having direct advantages: the people which feel easier on the greek environment have ages above 30 and they have greater possibilities in transactions through the internet. Except of the facilitation on the communication between seller and buyer, the right support of greek should help on the quick adaptation and the growth of trust. It is much easier for the businessman to sell when he speaks on the natural tongue of his customer. In cases of electronic commerce then, full support of the greek language is essential. |
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