Accomodating ESL speakers

[avri]

On måndag, jul 7, 2003, at 10:39 Canada/Eastern, Dave Crocker wrote:

> As a community of individuals, we are grotesquely insensitive to these
> participants. We speak much too fast, and often in incomplete 
> sentences.
> We use idioms all the time. We get impatient when someone requests that
> we repeat ourselves.
>
> And then, of course, there is the dominant "American" style of
> interactions, which can most kindly be described as wildly different
> from what is normal in most other countries, especially for formal
> situations like a standards meeting.
>
>

i personally agree completely. having spent the last few years working 
outside the US  i found i was guilty of much of that.  and still am to 
some extent.

our entire tirade against slideware - especially wordy slideware - is 
part of that.  before going to live outside the US, i would be happy 
with slides that contained a picture or two.  now i have learned that 
if i want non-native english speakers to understand my presentation, i 
should include lots of words explaining my point.  something that is 
somewhat frowned upon at the ietf.

a.