4 ms·

Sigh... I never remember the names of the logical fallacies, I have to look up them, thanks a lot. Anyways, here's yours: Slippery Slope.

CyberRabbi 6y ago
Where’s the logical fallacy? More people natively speak Chinese than any other language in the world. If you want to maximize the exposure of your ideas, it’s only logical to render them in Chinese. It’s the same reason I prefer to distribute applications over the web. FYI: English has ~1100 million total speakers but only 318 millon native speakers, while Chinese has 918 million native speakers. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/100-most-spoken-languages/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/100-most-spoken-languages/
- dataflow 6y ago
  https://www.statista.com/statistics/266808/the-most-spoken-languages-worldwide/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/266808/the-most-spoken-l... Unless it's already out of date...
- richrichardsson 6y ago
  > More people natively speak Chinese than any other language in the world You've made the assumption that all Chinese people speak one language, which is a false assumption I'm afraid [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_China
  - CyberRabbi 6y ago
    > You've made the assumption that all Chinese people speak one language, No I didn’t. I cited the fact that Chinese is the largest natively spoken language in the world, by an order of magnitude.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - bonzini 6y ago
    All of them can read the characters for year/month/day though.
- ginko 6y ago
  >English has ~1100 million total speakers but only 318 millon native speakers, while Chinese has 918 million native speakers Why would that matter? Arguably the ideal lingua franca should have no native speakers at all as those have an unfair advantage.
  - CyberRabbi 6y ago
    > Why would that matter? Arguably the ideal lingua franca should have no native speakers at all as those have an unfair advantage. I share your vision of an explicitly taught universal language which gives no group or individual an unfair advantage. We obviously need more equality in the world. From the perspective of trying to maximize how many people with whom you are able to communicate, however, on a practical basis it matters little whether or not they are native speakers.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - maxwell 6y ago
      Your numbers above list 1.132B English speakers and 1.116B Mandarin speakers.
      - CyberRabbi 6y ago
        A larger percentage of mandarin speakers are native mandarin speakers than the equivalent statistic for English. 918 million native mandarin speakers, 310 million native English speakers. Native speakers are generally better at understand the nuances of language than non-native speakers.
- specialist 6y ago
  > Where’s the logical fallacy? This is terrific, thank you. So meta. Other popular examples: "Is this some kind or radical new therapy?" from What About Bob? https://youtu.be/0pKymngWgJw?t=50 https://youtu.be/0pKymngWgJw?t=50 McNaulty from The Wire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIvsTXnik7Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIvsTXnik7Q

CyberRabbi 6y ago

Where’s the logical fallacy? More people natively speak Chinese than any other language in the world. If you want to maximize the exposure of your ideas, it’s only logical to render them in Chinese. It’s the same reason I prefer to distribute applications over the web. FYI: English has ~1100 million total speakers but only 318 millon native speakers, while Chinese has 918 million native speakers. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/100-most-spoken-languages/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/100-most-spoken-languages/

dataflow 6y ago
https://www.statista.com/statistics/266808/the-most-spoken-languages-worldwide/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/266808/the-most-spoken-l... Unless it's already out of date...
richrichardsson 6y ago
> More people natively speak Chinese than any other language in the world You've made the assumption that all Chinese people speak one language, which is a false assumption I'm afraid [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_China
- CyberRabbi 6y ago
  > You've made the assumption that all Chinese people speak one language, No I didn’t. I cited the fact that Chinese is the largest natively spoken language in the world, by an order of magnitude.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- bonzini 6y ago
  All of them can read the characters for year/month/day though.
ginko 6y ago
>English has ~1100 million total speakers but only 318 millon native speakers, while Chinese has 918 million native speakers Why would that matter? Arguably the ideal lingua franca should have no native speakers at all as those have an unfair advantage.
- CyberRabbi 6y ago
  > Why would that matter? Arguably the ideal lingua franca should have no native speakers at all as those have an unfair advantage. I share your vision of an explicitly taught universal language which gives no group or individual an unfair advantage. We obviously need more equality in the world. From the perspective of trying to maximize how many people with whom you are able to communicate, however, on a practical basis it matters little whether or not they are native speakers.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - maxwell 6y ago
    Your numbers above list 1.132B English speakers and 1.116B Mandarin speakers.
    - CyberRabbi 6y ago
      A larger percentage of mandarin speakers are native mandarin speakers than the equivalent statistic for English. 918 million native mandarin speakers, 310 million native English speakers. Native speakers are generally better at understand the nuances of language than non-native speakers.
specialist 6y ago
> Where’s the logical fallacy? This is terrific, thank you. So meta. Other popular examples: "Is this some kind or radical new therapy?" from What About Bob? https://youtu.be/0pKymngWgJw?t=50 https://youtu.be/0pKymngWgJw?t=50 McNaulty from The Wire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIvsTXnik7Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIvsTXnik7Q