Dear GAP Forum,

Let me add the following remarks to Hideki Sawada's opinion.

1, There is no Japanese math, Polish math or French math. If you open GAP
filials ditinguished by the users' lenguages you will get divergent GAP
versions.

2, Living in a small country, having a mother tongue spoken by very few, I
fully understand the feelings and resentment around a second language.
Still, I encourage my students to master basic notions in their mother
tongue(s) and to master advanced tools as they are. At the same time there
are opposit opinions, too.

3, The computer age burdens a number of languages (from Japanese to Check or
Greek) with keyboard limitations. Still, as far as I know, the standard
keyboard is used everywhere.

Sincerely

**Miha'ly Makai**

----- Original Message -----
From: Hideki Sawada <sawada@ksmj522b.kj.yamagata-u.ac.jp>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <GAP-Forum@dcs.st-and.ac.uk>
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2001 4:23 AM
Subject: Re:Japanese Mailing List for GAP

From: Masahiko Hosoya <hosoya@sci.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
Subject: Re:Japanese Mailing List for GAP
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 16:27:48 +0900
Message-ID: <3B15F274.8B170711@sci.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
Dear Gap-Forum,

Since the last message of the above subject is addressed to Gap-Forum,
I also would like to comment on Masahiko Hosoya's idea of opening
a Japanese ML on GAP.

As a mathematical scientist I would rather prefer to do every thing
simply. For a non English speaking person it must be difficult to
accept English as one's second mother tongue, however it is not
a best idea not to use English which most people understand while
gap-people communicate.

I do not think that gap-people would blame mistakes in English questions
or answers sent by non English speaking members. One can also use
English - non English translation software before one sends a mail.

In the world of internet, there have have already appeared several
organizations like GAP-FORUM which do not mind members' nationalities
or cultural backgrounds. The question "Why English ?" may survive
for a while, but I think that your second language enriches your
mother tongue.

Sincerely,
Hideki SAWADA

Department of Mathematical Sciences
Faculty of Science
Yamagata University
Yamagata 990-8560
Japan

e-mail sawada@ksmj522b.kj.yamagata-u.ac.jp
Tel. +81-23-628-4531 (023-628-4531)
Fax. +81-23-628-4538 (023-628-4538)