Hello everybody :)
I have tried very hard to read all the long and complex posts, but I
am not able to respond in any detail to them all, sorry: my problem,
nobody else's. Too difficult to think of so many words and type so much.
Before I go any further, I want to thank all the people who have
written to me privately: I have learnt a lot from it, I appreciate
your input and support enormously, and it leaves a very good feeling
in my heart. :)
I was going to try continuing with the list, especially the
translation mails, since we have a lot to address in our aims to
translate the wiki and site, and possibly special information like
releases, handouts at cons. I was excited about the possibilities,
and by the enthusiasm of people offering to translate. I have always
received a lot of support on the specialist translation lists, and
it's encouraged me to do more, try and encourage others, especially
other women, to participate.
However, I obviously do not have the skills and background necessary
to do this on the D-W list. I apologize for that, it shames me and my
family, but it really seemed important and worth the risk of failure.
I have heard from many people who are still keen to contribute and
On 17/08/2005, at 12:39 AM, Julie Sloan wrote:
(an aside to Clytie, if she's reading: maybe there's room in
linuxchix
for a women-translator's list. If you are still interested in forming
one, IMO that'd be the place to ask)
yes, please, Julie, I will ask on the linuxchix volunteers list, of
which I am a member. While I was trying to address the issue of
encouraging more women to participate in D-W, and thus in Debian as a
whole, I can see that I could do that usefully at linuxchix, and
encourage people in whatever system or project suits them. I have
worked in advocacy and empowerment for a long time, and it is worth
it, _always_, to me, to see people taking that new step, gaining the
skills to realize they _can_ take it. I hope to continue with that,
and that my limitations will not prevent me being of some use there.
I am sorry that I have not been able to explain myself properly here.
I have wanted to encourage people here, and my comment on the Gnome-
Women list (of which I am also a member) was simply saying, while
discussing what G-W might want to do, that "some things work for D-W
and some things don't", IMHO. I have tried to talk about those things
here, often. I am sorry I have not succeeded.
I wish I could do more, but my physical/mental/emotional limitations
due to illness are too severe to allow me to continue. :( Being
here, the way it is now, is making me sicker (my problem, nobody
else's), and I have not achieved anything, so I don't think it's
worth that. I think my cultural background also limits me in handling
this type of communication. I simply have no experience in it.
I really want to encourage people, who possibly are not the people
you are looking for. I would like to put my effort into removing
barriers, helping people gain skills, encouraging them, helping them
find the right ways and the right places to ask questions and find
information. There is a lot of need for this in computing, and it is
what I do best. I am not doing well here, so it is probably wasting
your time. I certainly don't want to cause any bad feeling. I am
extremely uncomfortable in any situation where there is bad feeling. :(
Thankyou very much to everyone who has listened to what I've said,
and tried to help. I appreciate that so much. I have enjoyed working
on the wiki, and I remain a committed Debian translator: I am working
in many translation projects, but I think it's important to say here
that I have met only encouragement and acceptance in debian-i18n,
Christian and Frans are wonderful, among many others, and I will
always do my best for Debian translation. I _am_ achieving something
there, and I would like to leave you with the, for me, very exciting
and heart-warming news that the Debian-Installer will be released in
my language for the very first time, very soon. This is big news on
all the Vietnamese OSS sites, and something of which I think we can
feel very proud. :) Done, almost entirely, by a woman.
I had an email yesterday from another Vietnamese woman, who had found
the D-W wiki, in Vietnamese, while searching for something for
Vietnamese women, to help them with computing. She was so excited
that something existed for her, that someone thought it important
enough to translate information for her. She needed help, firstly,
with setting up her browser to show our language correctly.
Maybe I have got it wrong in thinking this is a good place to do such
things. Her English is very good, but she is an older woman, like
myself, shy and inhibited in upbringing, looking for someone to hold
out a hand in the long trail to some independence online. I want to
do that. I _will_ do that, for her and for anybody else I can. :)
I wish all of you and your families happiness and good fortune
throughout your lives. Thankyou. I go now.
from Clytie (vi-VN, Vietnamese free-software translation team / nhóm
Việt hóa phần mềm tự do)
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/vi-VN
