7 ms·
>Since no one would argue that knowing an extra language is not useful, Why would no one argue that? If I am a person from Kansas I am never going to run into
by stonemetal 11y ago
>Since no one would argue that knowing an extra language is not useful,
Why would no one argue that? If I am a person from Kansas I am never going to run into anyone who doesn't speak English. Where is the usefulness in learning any other language?
- S4M 11y agoWhat if you go on holiday abroad? What if you want to do a contract job for a Chinese/French/Spanish/South American/Japanese/German company? What if your company is selling something to a foreign company and they need someone to speak with their technical team that doesn't have a good English speaker?
- NoGravitas 11y agoHell, what if you go on holiday to Florida, Texas, or California? You will definitely want enough Spanish to order from a food truck if you want to get the most out of your visit.
- vehementi 11y agoHow did you determine that Kansas people will never in their lives encounter non-English speaking people? Are you asserting Kansas people do not ever travel and nobody visits Kansas and Kansas people could not possibly have a reason to talk to non-English people on the internet (for business or personal reasons)?
- leojg 11y agoKnowing a language is more than knowing how to speak it, in the process of learning it you learn how the culture that created it thinks and acts. There are words that are exclusive to one language or the other and say a lot of the people who speak it. Learning a language is, I think, as learning to play an instrument is more a cultural and leisure activity that might be useful sometime and helps to connect with other people and cultures.
- larsiusprime 11y agoPresumably they also have the internet in Kansas, giving you potential access to all sorts of different languages.
- geomark 11y agoSingle data point anecdote: an acquaintance from Kansas met and married a Thai woman there and they moved to Thailand. Unlikely that he would have previously ever considered learning Thai as a second language, but he's trying hard to learn it now. Just a funny anecdote. That is all.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- SyneRyder 11y agoI have a friend in Kansas who runs a store and is learning some Spanish. It seems to be helpful with communicating with some of her customers. It's been a few years since I last visited the US, but I remember being surprised at the number of Spanish billboards I saw and stores with signs saying "Se habla Español" across the states I visited.
- cableshaft 11y agoSpanish is becoming more and more prevalent in the US. There are some places where speaking English is in the minority, especially in the Southwest. I don't have a problem with it, except I took French and Japanese in school, not Spanish, so I only recognize a few dozen of the most common Spanish words and phrases. And I can't keep up the language learning habit as an adult, as my Duolingo profile will attest.
- omonra 11y agoSome people are crazy enough to leave Kansas. For them knowing another language would be a plus. For those times, when they are not in Kansas anymore.
- schoen 11y agoThen you might say that it has an in-toto benefit?
- mcguire 11y agoI haven't been to Kansas lately, but I expect the prevalence of Spanish would be similar to most other states. Plus, people do leave Kansas.
- kafkaesq 11y agoOK, there's not much benefit you then... as long as you spend the rest of your life in Kansas.