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> It's a language developed to be used as an international standard by people across all languages and cultures. Not really. It's not like it was developed by

> It's a language developed to be used as an international standard by people across all languages and cultures. Not really. It's not like it was developed by a universal consortium. It was created by a European guy and it draws primarily from Indo-European & Germanic languages. It's foreign to someone who isn't already well-acquainted with an Indo-European or Germanic language. By contrast, most metric units as currently defined are relevant to most people across the globe. For instance, water boils at around 70-80c in Nepal, but most countries have some population that lives around sea level.

jhbadger 5y ago
It's not that simple. Language difficulty isn't just about familiarity of vocabulary but also complexity of grammar. Some languages are just easier to learn regardless of shared vocabulary. Indonesian and Swahili, despite not having much shared vocabulary with Western languages, are well known to be among the easiest of natural languages to learn. I'm a native English speaker and have studied French, Spanish, German, Indonesian, Esperanto, and Mandarin and found Esperanto and Indonesian by far the easiest despite German (and maybe French due to the Norman Conquest) being both closer to English.
- mcdonje 5y ago
  The foreignness is still an issue even if it's easier to learn than other Indo-European or Germanic languages. If the intention is to get everyone in the world on board, but only 2 of the major language families are represented, it could feel a lot like colonialism to those whose languages aren't represented.
nkurz 5y ago
> For instance, water boils at around 70-80c in Nepal That's not completely false, but it quite misleading. It's true that the boiling point on the top of Everest at just under 9000m is just under 70C. The boiling point only drops to 80C at 6000m, which is very high even for Nepal. But the average elevation of Nepal is just over 3000m, where the boiling point is just under 90C. Kathmandu is at 1400m, with a boiling point around 95C. And the low point in Nepal is less than 100m above sea level, where the boiling point is pretty close to 100C.
- skywal_l 5y ago
  So if it is easier to produce steam at high elevation does it mean power generation would be more efficient?
- mcdonje 5y ago
  That kinda misses my point, but thanks for the extra details.

jhbadger 5y ago

It's not that simple. Language difficulty isn't just about familiarity of vocabulary but also complexity of grammar. Some languages are just easier to learn regardless of shared vocabulary. Indonesian and Swahili, despite not having much shared vocabulary with Western languages, are well known to be among the easiest of natural languages to learn. I'm a native English speaker and have studied French, Spanish, German, Indonesian, Esperanto, and Mandarin and found Esperanto and Indonesian by far the easiest despite German (and maybe French due to the Norman Conquest) being both closer to English.

mcdonje 5y ago
The foreignness is still an issue even if it's easier to learn than other Indo-European or Germanic languages. If the intention is to get everyone in the world on board, but only 2 of the major language families are represented, it could feel a lot like colonialism to those whose languages aren't represented.

nkurz 5y ago

> For instance, water boils at around 70-80c in Nepal That's not completely false, but it quite misleading. It's true that the boiling point on the top of Everest at just under 9000m is just under 70C. The boiling point only drops to 80C at 6000m, which is very high even for Nepal. But the average elevation of Nepal is just over 3000m, where the boiling point is just under 90C. Kathmandu is at 1400m, with a boiling point around 95C. And the low point in Nepal is less than 100m above sea level, where the boiling point is pretty close to 100C.

skywal_l 5y ago
So if it is easier to produce steam at high elevation does it mean power generation would be more efficient?
mcdonje 5y ago
That kinda misses my point, but thanks for the extra details.