Talk:Richard D. Lewis

Proposed merge with Lewis Model
This article has no independent refs Editor of articles starting with L (talk) 08:30, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

NPOV concerns
This article reads - at least to me - as extremely subjective, almost to the point of being a publicity statement. It has no independent references about the Lewis Model specifically, and no references at all apart from the individual's website and memoirs. This is especially clear in the language used, which presents the Lewis Model in terms of acceptance by the general public, clearly not following NPOV. As far as I know, this model is not accepted by academics in anthropology, sociology, or language practices. If it is as widely accepted as the article currently implies, this should be supported by verifiable sources.WmGB (talk) 14:43, 27 March 2014 (UTC)

I agree, although I guess this "model" can be described, if cited but should have a caveat similar to what you say. I've added citation tagsfor now, and removed a lot of the other gumpf. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.3.209.96 (talk) 17:27, 5 February 2016 (UTC)
 * The two views above strike me as extremely understated. The outrageous first paragraph, "Richard Donald Lewis (born 1930) is a British polyglot, cross-cultural communication consultant, and author. He claims to speak 11 languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish and Japanese). Some would argue he speaks only 7, as Norwegian, Swedish and Danish have mutual similarities.[citation needed]" is a reminder that "academic politics is as vicious as it is because the stakes are so small."  This thing has clearly been written by some half-wit who doesn't have an axe to grind because an axe would be too big for him to carry.


 * The article says "He is descended from a long line of coal miners." This is insane.  The Welsh coal industry lasted barely a century, so there is no such thing as a long line of miners, except perhaps among the Polish technicians who were imported by the English owners in the 1880's to help develop the mines.  All of them were probably descended from Germans, so there'd be no such thing as a long line of Polish them, either.


 * I think the intro might be replaced by "Richard Donald Lewis (born 1930)[citation needed] is an English [citation needed] communication consultant and writer. polyglot and social theorist.  He has served as English tutor to Empress Michiko of Japan [citation needed], but is chiefly known for his "Lewis Model of Cross-Cultural Communication." [citation needed]."


 * Someone more expert than me at Wikipedese might want to add a few more tags. Wikipedia has a style to uphold, after all.


 * David Lloyd-Jones (talk) 15:50, 2 February 2017 (UTC)

Mutual intelligibility of Scandinavian languages
According to a study conducted by Lars-Olof Delsing and Katarina Lundin Åkesson published in 2005, mutual intelligibility of Scandinavian languages is approximately 50% on average. Based on the results of this extensive study, it is contentious to state that knowing either Norwegian, Swedish or Danish automatically infers the possession of the other North Germanic languages. The study also contains detailed tables on how native youth from different Scandinavian cities performed at the tests on how well they understand other Continental Scandinavian languages.


 * War between linguistic factionalists is Norway's national indoor sport. This fact alone probably accounts for Norway's extremely high taxes on alcohol.
 * I'd say the anonymous poster here has supplied one more vote for the general inanity and cluelessness of this 'pedia entry.
 * David Lloyd-Jones (talk) 15:55, 2 February 2017 (UTC)
 * @David Lloyd-Jones, FYI I have fixed it as per your suggestion.

Zezen (talk) 09:58, 27 March 2017 (UTC)