All my Facebook friends speak English, so I tend to post mostly in that language with the occasional status update in French. Some of my friends will also occasionally post in French, Spanish, Latin, or Chinese. Recently one of my friends did a French-language immersion program, so we wrote on each other's walls exclusively in French for a month or so.
I've never seen anyone get angry about posts in languages they don't understand. If they comment at all it tends to be something along the lines of "What's that mean?" or friendly teasing like "You would post a status in a dead language." When I come across a status in a language other than English, I try to read it, and if I can't, I usually just ignore it.
I really just stick to languages that at least some of my friends will understand - so even if I knew, say, Swahili, I probably wouldn't post in it, because no one would be able to understand it. But if you have some friends that understand each of the languages you want to try posting in, I think it's a great idea and it sounds like fun.
Thank you for answering. Is there a lot of the "What does this mean"-comments? Because I see them very rarely myself, despite the diversity of my fb-friends.
I really just stick to languages that at least some of my friends will understand - so even if I knew, say, Swahili, I probably wouldn't post in it, because no one would be able to understand it.
Funny you should say that since I have two friends currently, and independently from each other, is learning Swahili and posting updates in the language. I do not understand a word.
The "what does this mean?" comments I think tend to happen when people post in languages that most of their friends don't know. For example, I have Chinese friends who sometimes post in Mandarin, because they have lots of Mandarin-speaking friends as well as their English speaking ones, and the anglophones tend to ignore it, probably because they realize the comment is just meant for a different social circle and asking might seem rude. But I also have a friend who's studying Japanese, who doesn't have many Japanese-speaking friends but occasionally updates his status in Japanese just for fun. He gets asked about it, probably because his friends realize he's not trying to speak exclusively to one group of people. Same thing with my friend who posts in Latin.
I've never seen anyone get angry about posts in languages they don't understand. If they comment at all it tends to be something along the lines of "What's that mean?" or friendly teasing like "You would post a status in a dead language." When I come across a status in a language other than English, I try to read it, and if I can't, I usually just ignore it.
I really just stick to languages that at least some of my friends will understand - so even if I knew, say, Swahili, I probably wouldn't post in it, because no one would be able to understand it. But if you have some friends that understand each of the languages you want to try posting in, I think it's a great idea and it sounds like fun.
Reply
I really just stick to languages that at least some of my friends will understand - so even if I knew, say, Swahili, I probably wouldn't post in it, because no one would be able to understand it.
Funny you should say that since I have two friends currently, and independently from each other, is learning Swahili and posting updates in the language. I do not understand a word.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment