• MajesticSloth@lemmy.world
    741·
    7 months ago

    I love this. I recently had someone from Indonesia apologize for their English which, as often is the case was fantastic. I always tell people like that, I know one language, and you know more than one, never apologize for that.

    • EatYouWell@lemmy.world
      35·
      7 months ago

      Wasn’t there a soccer/football player that called out a crowd for laughing at a fan trying to talk to him in the player’s native language?

    • samus12345@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      7 months ago

      Most of the time I’d never have known they weren’t native English writers if they didn’t say so.

    • stackPeek@lemmy.world
      2·
      4 months ago

      The coolest thing about Indonesian is that if that person can speak English, it’s possible that they can speak three or more languages, as Indonesian people usually speak Bahasa Indonesia and their local language

      • MajesticSloth@lemmy.world
        1·
        4 months ago

        Her native tongue was a smaller Chinese dialect. So, yeah she knew 3 or more languages. I think there was a 4th, but I’m forgetting what it was. Probably is Bahasa like you mention.

  • Emerald@lemmy.world
    17·
    7 months ago

    Image Transcription: Reddit Comments

    MeisterVaxl

    Does your doors dont have locks?

    FW190A8OP

    Does youre english haveth good?

    MeisterVaxl

    You speak english because its the only language you know.

    I speak english because its the only language you know.

    We re not the same

  • MidRomney@lemmy.world
    468·
    7 months ago

    Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say the OP speaks English because that’s the language the knowledge is stored in?

    • Sentau@feddit.de
      19·
      7 months ago

      What knowledge¿? If you mean all knowledge, do you think people who don’t speak English possess no knowledge¿?

        • Sentau@feddit.de
          24·
          7 months ago

          Wild claim to say that day that people who can’t communicate with you possess no knowledge. Does a person who has become dumb due to damage to their vocal cords suddenly lose all their knowledge because they can no longer speak¿?

          Also why are they the ones to blame. There is some liability on you as well because if you know their native language, you could speak with them.

      • TheGalacticVoid@lemm.ee
        2·
        7 months ago

        I’m guessing they mean that people usually think in their native tongue, so if they are native English speakers, their knowledge is English.

        Another guess is that English is often a lingua franca, so society’s knowledge is primarily in English.

        Beyond that, no clue.

      • MidRomney@lemmy.world
        24·
        7 months ago

        It was obviously about the knowledge that OP was specifically seeking. OP is communicating in English because the knowledge that OP wants is in English. OP could ask for that knowledge in their native language instead, but the knowledge that they specifically want is in English, so it wouldn’t help them any.

        • Sentau@feddit.de
          8·
          7 months ago

          OP is communicating in English because the knowledge that OP wants is in English.

          I disagree. The reason OP asks in English is because the person with the knowledge is only able communicate and transmit that knowledge in English. Knowledge itself has is it restricted to languages. A multi lingual person can express the same fact in several different languages

    • Syrus@lemmy.world
      111·
      7 months ago

      English evolved as an amalgamation of Germanic and Roman languages which made it easier for western europeans to learn.

      I’m pretty sure the popularity of American movies had a huge part in it aswell because that’s how myself and most of the people i know learned english.

      You guys helping to end WWII is also a fact that can’t be ignored as it solidified our respect to the U.S. but those days are long gone unfortunately…