The help page on asking questions (formerly part of the faq) says:
Should I ask/answer in French or English? Both languages are accepted. If you are learning French, we suggest that you learn by doing and ask in French, but there is no obligation. ...
Is this good advice, and is it a canonical/authoritative policy deserving of placement in the official help?
This advice comes from early discussions on the language of the site, mainly Quelle est la langue principale du site? What is the primary language of the site? and May I ask a question in <language>? Est-ce que je peux poser une question dans <langue>? The formulation was proposed (by me, as it happens) in Que doit contenir notre FAQ ? What should our FAQ contain? and adopted after minor feedback and no opposition.
There is an ever-present tension between French learners (who might not understand French well enough to ask and answer in French) and French experts (who might not understand English well enough to ask and answer in English).
Yes, you will learn more by asking in French, if you can. (If you can! That's why there is no obligation.) Both because asking in French is an exercise in writing French (and we'll correct your French for free), and because you'll reach more experts that way, you'll have a better chance of getting a good answer.
Don't forget that by pushing English, you're pushing away French speakers who don't speak English well. Indeed it is quite difficult to market FL&U with the experts because of this. FL&U is perilously close to being a site for French learners — and the problem with a site for learners is that it excludes the experts.
I think it is only sometimes good advice, and should be left out of the help. As it says, there's no obligation, and both French and English are accepted. The help should be about asking good questions, not telling people how to learn.
Speaking as very much a beginner, I feel this is likely unhelpful advice for the person posting the question. While I do appreciate the notion of learning by doing, writing in a foreign language by using a dictionary for most of the words is a very arduous process.
Further, it's been fairly well established that answers are preferred to be in the language of the question. Someone learning the language may be able to, with effort and subsequent editing from the community, ask a simple question in French, but then they'll have to decipher answers in French, likely written at a higher level than the question.
Both writing the question and reading the answers can of course be learning processes, as suggested, but particularly for beginners, they are unlikely to be efficient or productive learning processes. I know that if I have a basic specific question, the thing that will help me most is a quick, understandable answer and returning to my lessons. But the help seems to be trying to tell me that I'd learn more if I asked in French.
If on the other hand, I were comfortable enough to ask and read answers in French, it'd be a great idea - no argument there. But at that point, I wouldn't need the help page to tell me so either. It's great to encourage people to learn, but I don't think the help needs to be quite so prescriptive.
