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Is it rude to reply using English under posts in a language you can’t speak? (self.fediverse)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by fdrc_lm to c/fediverse@lemmy.world

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I often reply under Japanese posts, and I always assume users will use a translator as I do, but maybe in the context of a Japanese instance or conversation this may look rude?

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[-] splendoruranium@infosec.pub 48 points 4 months ago

I often reply under Japanese posts, and I always assume users will use a translator as I do, but maybe in the context of a Japanese this may look rude?

Can't speak for others (obviously, as this is about individual etiquette perceptions) but I would consider it to be polite to only enter conversations with unknown parties in languages that the parties have shown to be capable of speaking and understanding.
Using a new language entering a conversation would therefore signal either familiarity ("I know they understand me") or rudeness ("I don't care if they understand me") to me, I suppose.

[-] Jumuta@sh.itjust.works 25 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

nah, it's better for information integrity to reply in the language you understand imo, comments translated using translator services are very obvious anyway and some people are multilingual

[-] recently_Coco 14 points 4 months ago

I wonder, then, if the move is to type your comment, run it through a translator yourself, then post both? I saw that move a lot on Rednote before it added its own translator.

[-] splendoruranium@infosec.pub 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

nah, it’s better for information integrity to reply in the language you understand imo, comments translated using translator services are very obvious anyway and some people are multilingual

Sure, I agree? Maybe there's a misunderstanding here and I should add that it simply would never even occur to me to enter a conversation if I didn't natively understand the language that's being used.

[-] Sl00k@programming.dev 1 points 4 months ago

On xiaohongshu before the translate feature people would write in both languages for ease of translation and so the other side wouldn't have to translate it themselves.

That's probably the best situation especially when we don't have text limits.

It was however hilarious watching everyone find out in realtime just how bad Google translator is for Chinese and literally everyone having to swap to GPT or DeepL.