Subject: No German, Unless Your Native Language, I'm English.
From: German_Sender@
Sender: German_Sender@

			I append http://berklix.com/jhs/std/no_german.asc

Thanks for your mail, 
I'm English, Please do Not write in German if that's not your first language.
I can read German, but prefer English. Please, unless you are actually a
native speaker of German (& I have no means of knowing, as all previous
correspondence has been in English), do not mail me in German ! 
- Some people write to me in German because they see a .de in a
  domain, or mention of Munich/ Muenchen etc, even though all my
  prior mail discussion has been in English on international mail
  lists.  Wrong deduction ! I'm not German !  I am English.
- Perhaps people think they're being friendly or helpful or practising their
  German on me, learnt at school, or with USA German ancestry etc, but ...
- Though my German is good enough for me to read real Germans', it is easily
  confused, & I really don't appreciate wading through unsolicited-
  switched- to- quasi- maybe- German, when I must both try to understand the
  meaning, and simultaneously guess if (A) this is _proper_ German where I
  should also learn the grammar, or (B) this is just quasi German from a
  non native speaker, with perhaps as many but different mistakes as I make,
  where learning the sender's grammar could be deleterious.
- One give away of non native German, is an absence of &/or wrong
  capitalisation (though IMO abandonment of caps & restoration of
  inter word spacing would improve the language).
If you Are a native speaker of German, please feel to write to me
in German or English whichever you want.  If you are Not a native
speaker of German, please do not write to me at all, unless you
use English (or unless you'r some third language native, & your
German is much better than your English).  Thanks !
PS If you first language is French you could also write short notes in 
simple French, but do Not do so unless you are a native French speaker.

Free Software: http://berklix.com/free/    Consultancy: http://berklix.com

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JJLATER to be merged
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I don't want more Americans with German ancestry assuming I'm German,
& writing me in half baked German ! My German grammar is also half
baked, & I find real German grammar puzzling enough. It would be
foolish to lead each other astray, puzzling about & maybe worse,
even learning each other's faulty grammar, so use your imperfect
German only with native German speakers please, not with me !

Exceptions:
-  If eg You'r Japanese, can't speak English, can speak German.
- If you have included readers/ listeners who are German, & don't understand English,
- If you're quoting or preparing a text for a German publication