Lean
Oh, the irony.
Bit oblivious, more like.
What value does a foreign language have for Bob, who lives in the middle of the country?
I learned two languages in school, have never used either one with a native speaker of that language.
If we had a different language in each state there would be a lot more Americans who spoke several.
America has 300 different answers for “what language do you speak at home with family”.
Three hundred.
You could have 6 different languages per state, with no overlap, just by shuffling people around.
Yeah and there are people that speak Basque in Spain. However, you won’t find many that are not Basque speaking that language. The Basque speakers all mostly speak Spanish.
Same thing in the US. Sure there are people that speak 300 languages, but the majority speak English. They are also spread out.
Only major exception would be Spanish
And even in the US there are a pretty good amount of native English speakers who have learned Spanish for this reason.
True, but that’s out of a nation of 350 million people.
You have a different language in each house. If you want to learn or practice a new language, you’ll find speakers in any community.
I already don’t talk to the people who speak my language.
You could not talk to them in so many more languages! I hear Finnish is particularly good for not talking to people.
What value does a foreign language have for Bob, who lives in the middle of the country?
I learned two languages in school, have never used either one with a native speaker of that language.
We have a huge population of Spanish speaking people here.
There’s roughly the same amount of people in the US that speak Spanish that do in Spain.
Sense of wonder from discovering how different people from different places think similarly or differently of the same experiences, or different experiences you never thought about.
Otherwise, maybe trying to interact with the immigrants probably covering the essential jobs in his small town that nobody else wants to do.Sense of wonder from discovering how different people from different places think similarly or differently of the same experiences, or different experiences you never thought about.
I mean, I’m sure some percentage of people who learn a language do so for that reason. But the vast, vast majority of time someone learns another language it’s going to be because they expect to use it, I imagine.
Yeah, I was giving another idea in case there is no expected use.
immigrants probably covering the essential jobs in his small town that nobody else wants to do.
I heard from others say “they’re not your tutor” and they just switch back to English with me 😭
It will depend on the people and how you approach them, some will be happy to learn your interest, some will expect that it goes both ways and some will not want to be bothered. That’s just normal human things.
I don’t understand this post or why you said “Lean”. Can someone explain? :(
You might notice the word “lean” somewhere up there. That’s a typo that OOP unintentionally & ironically made while mocking people for their perceived linguistics shortcomings.
The post says “lean” instead of “learn”.
In our defense, most of us can’t even speak English.
Depends where you are in the country or how wealthy you are, on whether learning a foreign language is a meaningful thing to do. People who live towards the middle and up north can easily go their entire lives without knowing another language. People who live towards the southern border could get a lot out of knowing Spanish. Towards either coast and knowing another language maybe useful. It’s a massive country that primarily speaks English, so it shouldn’t be a shocker to see that many wouldn’t need to learn a second language. I, myself barely know part of another language. And part of that is, it just isn’t really useful to me since almost no one here speaks another language.
Yeah, I mean fuck us and all we do suck, but I don’t think people outside the US and Canada really grasp how big this place is. A few years ago I drove to Montreal. It’s a 12 hour drive going 100km/h the whole way, and that’s to get to the nearest city that doesn’t speak English by default, a 24 hour drive in any other direction and I would still be surrounded by people speaking English.
For me it’d be a minimum of a 18 hour drive just to go somewhere where English isn’t always the default. Can be over a day’s journey to the other side of country. It’s just not like Europe where it’s an hour’s of a few hours trip to another country where they speak another language. Instead it’s a several hour trip just to go to the next state over who speaks the same language as me.
There is a lot of fair criticisms to make of our countries, but this isn’t really one of them. Instead you have to look a little deeper to understand the why people here don’t always know a second language.
Hard to learn a language when there’s nobody fluent to talk to in that language
One of the things Discord is actually good for! I learned Welsh and found a community specifically for practicing talking the language mentored by more experienced people.
I don’t want to talk to people online in a different language they’re mean.
Literally people are so smug and judgemental online.
Especially when an american joins a server in their language and starts speaking in it very poorly.
Whoever made this needs to LEAN the language they’re using first.
Next they lern to spel
If we are throwing shade at American education, I like to start with statistics and basic logical fallacies.
If Americans were taught logical fallacies, their society would fall apart
I don’t know why you’re saying “if.” They are taught logical fallacies, and…
gesticulates wildly at nation
If American students were taught to identify and avoid committing logical fallacies, then they’d be in a better place.
I meant if they were taught what logical fallacies are (and how to recognize them). What they are actually taught relies on logical fallacies and would crumble if they understood it for what it is. Pretty sure we’re saying the same thing.
Yes, I agree. I was making a joke about how backward, and often times completely incorrect, US education is, i.e., they are teaching the children logical fallacies.
And here is where I remind everyone of the Fallacy Fallacy.
I’m not sure of the intentions behind this
Yeah, I met americans on the internet too.
I don’t understand?
Isn’t the girl from Québec in the movie? They go get her from a university in Montreal, if I remember correctly…
It’s a shame there isn’t more language education in the US. We had one class on a foreign language starting in sixth grade, which is pretty late.
Most things here are mono lingual. I visited Montreal and I feel like if I was there for a few months, my rudimentary French would really develop. Unfortunately, the one time I tried to speak to someone there who didn’t speak English, it didn’t go super well. She was patient, but we weren’t really understanding each other. All my French is reading and writing, so I have an incredibly bad accent.
Sixth grade is late??
I didn’t get language options until high school
I mean learning Spanish for the southwest would be super valueable, I took 2 years Spanish but they suck at teaching. I learned nothing tbh. I learned a little while working retail mostly
Given that this completely ignores that there are thousands of people who can speak English and their native tribal language I’d say it’s both harsh and ignorant, putting aside that a foreign language was a required class in my high school school.
Oh the irony…
I travel a fair bit and one of the most embarrassing things is that I’m monolingual. Something like 4-5 BILLION people are 2+ languages. And then there’s me from a rich nation with a solid education, trying my best to speak the local language, just to have the other person step in with perfect English out of pure sympathy.
But, hey, people love that you make the effort. It’s like the joy of seeing a 3 year-old count to 10…except you’re an adult trying to say, “Could I have two, please?”
“Oh! That was very good!”
3 year-old grin on my adult face
T R I G G E R E D
