𝔅𝔲𝔱 𝔴𝔥𝔶?

It’s either that or learn German and I’m way too busy scrolling for that.

Yes!

And also, imagine the loudest bits of your local pubs are Trump, Trump, Trump, 24/7/365.

ABSOLUT NICHT!

While a huge portion of the population chooses not to become fluent in a language, because nearly everything within hundreds of miles of where they live uses the same language by default, we still provide opportunities to learn languages and in some areas people are commonly bilingual.

It can be hard to maintain a language without frequent exposure. I had some classes in Spanish and French, but without a large population that speaks either language in my area I just forgot it over time. Moved tons place where we do have a lot of people who speak Spanish and English, but since I'm not part of their community my exposure is limited to the occasional festival or signage as nobody needs me to impose my attempt to learn their language on them.

It isn't all about refusal, it is mostly lack of exposure.

I am actively working on learning spanish as an American, because I want to be able to speak to people when I go to central and south America.

I have far less interest in learning french or german, because Europe is both expensive to get to for me, and expensive to stay in relative to other places I have equal interest in travelling to. And besides that, if I were to travel to Europe, I've been told that everyone there already speaks english anyway. And besides that, I've been told that even if I try to learn french or german, the locals will just speak to me in English anyway since it is faster for them. Due to this, learning these languages largely becomes an intellectual exercise performed for its own sake. And if I'm going to spend hours doing some sort of intellectual hobby, I could just as easily want to learn to paint or play the guitar or perform statistical analysis on the different varieties of weeds in my back yard.

I mean honestly this is the most deranged and worst it's been in my ... at least adult lifetime. I think a lot of the political mess we're in is tied into our appetite for some pretty terrible pop culture. Yes, yes, we have moral and intelligent and sane people here too, but the way that we have leaned in so hard to trashy reality television, infuencers, anything to grab your attention and reward it monetarily...hell we have a reality tv president. It's not the only reason I think we're in the mess, but I think we've been primed to accept more and more outrageous behavior cause we've always been over the top and big and loud. I always assumed I'd live in a democracy, it was just a given. This is the first time I'm doubting it.

As an American I think the same way.

We’ve always really had two parties but historically they were not radically different. While I have certain tendencies, I’ve always understood the other party/perspective and sometimes voted for those candidates.

But now I have no clue what half the country is thinking. I don’t understand what happened to let the current crop of criminals attain leadership or get away with so much. Sometime I think it’s the “leopard eating faces” scenario, but sometimes I think it’s the toddler having a tantrum and knocking over the table scenario. Sometimes I think it’s just narcissists who can only think in the current time with no connection to the future. Sometimes I think people have no abstract thinking anymore and sometimes I think they’re all just gullible and easily manipulable. I can’t even have empathy for them because I can’t tell whether they deserve pity or need a scolding or need to stick to their sandbox.

Or if you’re talking about the mechanics of politics, that too. We have ways we’ve done things traditionally, according to laws back to (and even before) the constitution found our country. Apparently that doesn’t matter anymore

How the fuck is that related to this thread?

I agree to you stfu instead of polluting the discussion.

https://www.timetemperature.com/tzhi/honolulu.shtml

My read is that this is about when Germans are waking up, so there are many people posting whatever the new's of the day is. It just so happens that it corresponds with the time of the evening after work where I might browse lemmy while watching a show.

Like a Pandora station.

French is fun!

Well to read at least. I can't speak it worth a damn. Sentences are like a single word.

The good thing about English is that it's a slut. So many words and terms come from other languages that it's easy to have a basic word base to start with from other languages. As easy as some Americans dismiss Spanish influence, it's hard to not have at least some kind of understanding of at least some words. And being a Latin language, it's not that hard to grow from there. Hell, even the warnings and manuals for equipment will accidentally give you exposure as you look for the english version. Hablamos por uno ràzon. Broken ass Spanish, but it gets the point across.

I heard a rumor that half way through season 5 there is going to be a surprise change in cast.

English is a first language in more countries than Mandarin is, though.

Do wish Yanks would recognise the world as bigger than themselves, the PRC and the USA are shockingly similar.

If they’re that addicted to reddit’s way of doing things they can stay.

I remember in primary school that we were tasked with learning the names and capitals of all countries on the planet, continent for continent, so there is an early taught awareness of all countries, as well as a culture for backpacking, experiencing and adapting to other cultures. As a Norwegian, most news here are about here, and only major headlines from other countries are mentioned in the news, like the upcoming doctors strike in UK in the news today or the power outage in Spain a while back. Some more news from Sweden though, as it is our closest neighbour and the country we visit the most.

Yes, we do.