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And I wish for the complete opposite. When I go to Finland, I want to hear Finnish, read Finnish, and eat Finnish. I don't want to go to a place where kids spe

And I wish for the complete opposite. When I go to Finland, I want to hear Finnish, read Finnish, and eat Finnish. I don't want to go to a place where kids speak, write, and think exactly like the kids from the school down the road here in North America. I don't want to travel 8000km to hear and see the same things as I have for my whole life. There's nothing more depressing to me than a world where everything is the same and where there is no friction between anything.

lostmsu 5y ago
That's a false dichotomy. Same language does not imply same everything else.
bluGill 5y ago
When I go to Finland I want to understand and be understood. When I go to Spain I want to understand and be understood. When I go to - any of the 100+ other countries in the world (most with more than one language) - the same, I want to understand and be understood. If this was just about Finland I would learn their language (or just not go there in my lifetime), but this is about the 3000 other languages spoken in the world as well, and nobody has time to learn them all. If I want to read I'll go to my local library and request a book. Unless you mean streets signs - but there again not enough time.
- mensetmanusman 5y ago
  Well the future will be ‘interesting’ if it is all approximately the same culture. Then the only reason to travel would be to look at different earth formations and buildings, and experience different weather?.
  - bluGill 5y ago
    Language isn't barely even a part of culture. Sure cultures have a language, but that is just to communicate, culture is how the people live their life.
int_19h 5y ago
People can speak more than one language, though. It would be great if we had one that was truly universal to encourage communication and sharing of information, while retaining all the existing languages for colloquial use and arts.
- sterlind 5y ago
  retaining the existing languages is hard. loan words will come in wholesale from English, there's no real incentive to keep speaking when you could be practicing your English skills, the native language will be associated with being uneducated, etc. Navajo is maybe the best example of a language that's been kept up for cultural reasons, and it tends not to assimilate loanwords, but thousands more languages are dying or extinct.
  - int_19h 5y ago
    Living people aren't some kind of exhibits in a museum. If they don't want to retain their existing language as living, they shouldn't be forced to - just as they shouldn't be forced to drop it. Same thing with language purity. Loanwords etc are a natural part of language evolution. It's up to the community speaking the language to incorporate more loanwords - or not - as they speak it.
    - ploika 5y ago
      That's too simplistic. It's very hard to keep minority languages alive, even if you really desperately want to, when you're immersed in a majority language. The Irish language is in danger even in the Gaeltacht areas where native Irish speakers live, because English is everywhere. Tech is almost exclusively English, most jobs are English-only, most media is in English (not to mention ads on YouTube), most news and politics happens in English (the primary sources at least), all the packaging on everything you buy is in English, it's much easier to find a solicitor who speaks English-legalese than Irish-dlítheanga, your kids pick up English from TV and life. Before you know it, you and many of your acquaintances are a bit rusty, and conversations happen in English more and more. The language declines, and it's not what you wanted.

lostmsu 5y ago

That's a false dichotomy. Same language does not imply same everything else.

bluGill 5y ago

When I go to Finland I want to understand and be understood. When I go to Spain I want to understand and be understood. When I go to - any of the 100+ other countries in the world (most with more than one language) - the same, I want to understand and be understood. If this was just about Finland I would learn their language (or just not go there in my lifetime), but this is about the 3000 other languages spoken in the world as well, and nobody has time to learn them all. If I want to read I'll go to my local library and request a book. Unless you mean streets signs - but there again not enough time.

mensetmanusman 5y ago
Well the future will be ‘interesting’ if it is all approximately the same culture. Then the only reason to travel would be to look at different earth formations and buildings, and experience different weather?.
- bluGill 5y ago
  Language isn't barely even a part of culture. Sure cultures have a language, but that is just to communicate, culture is how the people live their life.

int_19h 5y ago

People can speak more than one language, though. It would be great if we had one that was truly universal to encourage communication and sharing of information, while retaining all the existing languages for colloquial use and arts.

sterlind 5y ago
retaining the existing languages is hard. loan words will come in wholesale from English, there's no real incentive to keep speaking when you could be practicing your English skills, the native language will be associated with being uneducated, etc. Navajo is maybe the best example of a language that's been kept up for cultural reasons, and it tends not to assimilate loanwords, but thousands more languages are dying or extinct.
- int_19h 5y ago
  Living people aren't some kind of exhibits in a museum. If they don't want to retain their existing language as living, they shouldn't be forced to - just as they shouldn't be forced to drop it. Same thing with language purity. Loanwords etc are a natural part of language evolution. It's up to the community speaking the language to incorporate more loanwords - or not - as they speak it.
  - ploika 5y ago
    That's too simplistic. It's very hard to keep minority languages alive, even if you really desperately want to, when you're immersed in a majority language. The Irish language is in danger even in the Gaeltacht areas where native Irish speakers live, because English is everywhere. Tech is almost exclusively English, most jobs are English-only, most media is in English (not to mention ads on YouTube), most news and politics happens in English (the primary sources at least), all the packaging on everything you buy is in English, it's much easier to find a solicitor who speaks English-legalese than Irish-dlítheanga, your kids pick up English from TV and life. Before you know it, you and many of your acquaintances are a bit rusty, and conversations happen in English more and more. The language declines, and it's not what you wanted.