Great question, Max! I've been wondering a lot about the absence of South Africans particularly. Not just here, but I don't think I've met one SA on any board I've been involved with...and they are one of the largest English speaking countries (population-wise) for the last couple hundred years or so (...am I right about this?).

good numbers from most countries where English is a first language, as well as from Australia

Hey! What about USns?

They are here on the NH Seacoast! A few, anyway.
As I was registering my car at the Town Clerk's office in early February, I met a very pleasant South African couple who had just bought a house in our little town - they were registering their cars, too!
And in the same week I met a lovely young South African gal who has taken a job as a cashier in our local supermarket.
Next time I see them around town, I'll give them the wordsmith.org address.

I strongly suspect AWAD is too risqué for the Sethefrican government, and is therefore banned. Last year I saw a copy of a S.A. "girlie" magazine which could have easily passed as the swimsuit issue of Good Housekeeping or something.

Max

Consider the Board's demographics for a moment....

* English as a first (and often only) language

* From monocultural (OK Canadians I'm not forgetting you - just thinking aloud), often anglo-saxon dominated countries

* From places with a high level of PC and internet account ownership

Guess I'm trying to say it's a cultural thing and, on this flimsy basis, I reckon the representative country ratios are about right. Admittedly there should be 1 or 2 boks if I'm right, but I'm not surprised that there's not.

stales

Back to the representative ratios thing....

Kiwiland - what - 3 or 4 million people?? (wild guess)

Oz - around 17-18 million

USA - (another wild guess) 270 million?

Assuming 2 regular Kiwi posters (including one who's abroad I believe - which just goes to show that WHERE one is residing now is irrelevant), the ratios give us a theoretical 12 Aussies and 180 USN's. Looking at the real numbers of the latter two groups the notion works for me.

To have 2 boks there'd have to be as many "British" South Africans as there are "British" Kiwis.

As you've probably all gathered, the world's population stats aren't my strong suit, but I have a feeling that there's probably less than 3 million of them - anywhere???????

stales

The population of SA is approximately 40 million. There are about 5 million people classifed as white (perhaps self-selected in these post-apartheid days). Using the stalesyometer, there should therefore be 4 South Africans on the board. However, of those 5 million whites, perhaps half actually speak Afrikaans as a first language. So that cuts your 4 in half = 2.

Perhaps you would like to ring Nelson Mandela and ask him when they are both going to register?

Looking at Anu's statistics page, we see the number of members from various countries are:

US : 9759
Canada : 8219
Australia: 6320
UK: 5632
South Korea: 4307
India: 3412
Germany: 2413
Poland: 1976
South Africa: 1921
China: 1740
NZ: 1511

So there are apparently actually more South Africans than Zilders, but this doesn't include the overwhelming majority of subscribers with a .com, .net, .edu or .org e-mail address. I don't think I can say I know anyone with a .us e-mail address.

Don't think you can count AWAD subscribers, JazzO. By that reckoning we should be inundated with Koreans ...

How was England, BTW?

By that reckoning we should be inundated with Koreans ...

True, but I would expect there to be some correlation. Perhaps there are just many more Zilders with .com addresses.

How was England, BTW?

Incredible, I enjoyed it thoroughly. This isn't the proper thread, so I won't elaborate, but sometime soon I'll get around to posting my full thoughts, perhaps with some excerpts from my yet unfinished travel journal.

There are 4 requirements for this board
1) interest in English (doesn't matter if it is 1st or 5th language you speak)

2) ready access to computers and to internet(hardware/infrastructure)

3) knowledge of AWAD

4) time and money to make it all work.

we are a very self select group. we all have access to computers on a regular basis. this means an investment in hardware, some free time, and reliable telephone lines--or in the case of stales, satelite hookups when he is out in the bush!

I remember being surprizes 20 years ago, how hard it was for a friend to get home telephone service in Rotterdam.. there was a 2 year wait for instalation!

The US, if anything, lags behind the rest of the world when it come to cell phone use, because we had such a well developed infrastructure.. as did UK, and now i am guessing, also NZ and AU. phone service was cheap, and readily available almost every where in US.

what about SA? What was the phone system like in johansburg? like rotterdam? or like london?

I don't think I can say I know anyone with a .us e-mail address.

Actually®, the address to which I have my word-a-day sent is a .us addy, so Jazzo, you can start counting off your .us acquaintances.

ONE!

> So that cuts your 4 in half = 2.

QED

stales

I don't think I can say I know anyone with a .us e-mail address.

Now you can say you know two of .us! Many state government employees (in my state and in others) have addresses like mine: <name>@<department>.state.<state's abbreviation>.us

Many state government employees (in my state and in others) have addresses like mine: <name>@<department>.state.<state's abbreviation>.us

Oh yeah, I completely forgot about that. All the teachers in my school district have addresses that end with @loveland.k12.oh.us. I didn't even think about that. I guess I know quite a few people with .us addresses then.

Dear Max: phyllisstein was on the Board this AM, or did you know that?

I thought there was someone from South Africa ages ago, maybe he lived somewhere else but was originally from SA, can't remember.

Dear Max: So send her a PM as I did. She answered me.

Dear jmh: When I first joined, a contributor from S.Africa made a post based on his knowledge of chemistry, which is all I can remember about him.

Hey Max: You don't sound like your own lovable self. You could send her a PM invitation without committing her to PM reply, if you give her your e-mail. Remember she might not notice this thread. And perhaps she may not find "bok" designation appealing. Don't be a Philistine with sweet Miss phyllisstein.

Dear Max: I detected no rugby potential in Miss phyllisstein.