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<p><a
href="http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/27/wikipedia-as-a-foreign-culture/">http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/27/wikipedia-as-a-foreign-culture/</a></p>
<p>The link above directs to an interesting article I received
through one of Wikimedia's mailing lists.</p>
<p>I can relate to many of the experiences Leigh Thelmadatter
describes through my experience as an editor on the Arabic
Wikipedia. Editing on WP is indeed very useful for immersing
oneself in foreign-language/foreign-culture situations, hence for
practicing many aspects of the foreign language.</p>
<p>Even more interesting is Thelmadatte's observation that the first
encounters with the WP community is a "culture shock". I just
wonder how many people can overcome this shock and genuinely
become full-fledged member of the WP community. My personal
disappointment of WP is my feeling that it didn't develop stable
learnable cultural codes, or, possibly, that too many participants
do not feel committed to these codes (if they do exist). The
cultural experience WP provides is often that of an immigrant in a
transition camp, trying to figure out the new country's rules
along with several sets of cultural codes, each belongs to a
different immigrant group in the camp, not knowing when this
transitional phase experience is going to end.</p>
<p>Dror K </p>
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