Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-03-12/Education report
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Multicutural views of the same subject edit
I agree, it can be great "to have different cultures stating their own views on the same subjects." The only problem I've run into with that (with my admittedly very limited multilanguage editing experience) is that different cultures sometimes have non-compatible views on the same subject. We run into this in the English Wikipedia fairly often on such topics as "Should this famous person who was born in India then moved to Great Britain and became a British citizen be listed as an Indian person?" And, "Should this famous person who was born in Turkey, but whose Armenian parents emigrated to Turkey, be listed as a Turkish person or an Armenian person?"
As far as non-English Wikipedias go, let me give one example. In 1869, Francis Fox Tuckett, an English guy went down to Italy and climbed the Italian Alps. A mountain was named after him. In 1879, some Germans built a chalet, a nice multi-story house, next to this mountain. The Italians and the Germans consequently called it the "German House" or "Berliner Hütte". The Germans used the house as an ammo dump during World War II. At some point, the Italians renamed the chalet "Tuckett's Refuge" or "Refugio Tuckett". Today, on the German Wikipedia, this house is known as the Berliner Hütte and on the Italian Wikipedia this house is known as the Refugio Tuckett.
Multiculturalism is great. Problems can arise, though, when one culture touts their view as "correct" and the other culture's view as "wrong". Banaticus (talk) 03:39, 24 February 2012 (UTC)
Illuminating edit
Thank you for your perspective piece, Leigh - Lots of ideas to explore !
An addendum while I'm at it : at WMFr, we have worked on Wikipedia:Wikimédia France/Workshop banner that can be of help during your university workshops (we use it with doctoral student) --Ofol (t) 23:22, 3 March 2012 (UTC)