This view seems harsh to me because it seems to treat languages and cultures as 100% interchangeable. I can imagine what you described as an extremely important

This view seems harsh to me because it seems to treat languages and cultures as 100% interchangeable. I can imagine what you described as an extremely important factor for many people, but you seem to view it as the only possible factor. (I'm currently at a crossword puzzle tournament in a foreign language in a foreign country, when I could of course find many such tournaments in my own country... so I guess I've been spending the whole weekend enjoying an experience of appreciating a foreign language in a way that's in some tension with what you describe.)