Whether to ask question in Russian or English

Question

I would argue that some advanced questions should be asked (and discussed) in Russian, not English.

For example, this one

Is there any difference between "потому что" and "потому как"?

This is based on the guess that there are two distinct groups of participants: People who study Russian as a second language and can't yet read it comfortably. They do not need these advanced questions, they'll only be confused by those. You can't understand or answer this question without a long history of reading texts in Russian.

And people who can understand or answer this question can also read Russian without many problems, or they are native speakers. So it makes no sense NOT to discuss the question in Russian, since it removes some impedance mismatch and, to say it humbly, is easier on native Russian speakers.

What do you think? Is there a policy on that?

Answer 1

The question about the language of questions has already been discussed here. The solution was that it is allowed to ask questions (of any level) in both Russian and English.

As for compelling people to ask advanced questions in Russian, I don't think that it's generally a good idea. My reasons:

1. Beginner learners of Russian can still be interested in advanced questions, just out of plain curiosity. Also, beginners sometimes ask very complex questions, even not knowing that they are hard to answer.

2. Not all advanced learners of Russian know the appropriate terminology (e.g. how to translate "aspect" or "gender" into Russian) or can use Russian freely. Some of them would like to get an explanation in English. So, it's the same situation for them with Russian.

3. Finally, it is not quite clear to me what an advanced question is.

That's why I think that it makes sense that people choose either Russian or English for their question, the one they feel more comfortable with, and expect to get the answer in the same language.

Answer 2

All language-oriented Stackexchange sites have passed through discussing this very issue.

Roughly speaking, almost always people came up to following:

• If the question is asked in language A, it's most probably nicer to answer in this question in A as well.
• If somehow from context it became obvious that most of participants (responders and those who comments) are OK with language B, there is no problem in switching to this language. Moreover, bilingual discussion is also accepted.
• English language is lingua franca for whole heterogenous StackExchange community. The probability that some abstract user will be satisfied with finding an answered question on whatever complicated issue is any way higher if this question he can at least read.

Even SE on French is quite friendly to English, whether in questions, answers or comments.

To conclude, bilingualism is the least of problems we definitely will encounter while expanding this community.