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> I lived there for a bit over three years. Never spent any time trying to learn the language. This feels like the same kind of attitude that makes immigrants
by CRConrad 4y ago
> I lived there for a bit over three years. Never spent any time trying to learn the language.
This feels like the same kind of attitude that makes immigrants from English-speaking countries think they're not immigrants (which you were, if only for a while) but "expats" (see other recent HN threads on that subject).
- jillesvangurp 4y agoI'm not actually a native English speaker even. But I get your point. To which I say, so what? It's not a problem for me to not be fluent in Swedish, Finnish, or German even though I've lived in Sweden, Finland, and now Germany for many years. I think it's great that people can move around and lead productive lives like that. There's going to be more of that enabled by tools and automated translations. It seems to offend people that I don't dedicate a large chunk of my life trying to master new languages; which is something I simply neither value nor enjoy. Sorry, I have more interesting things to do than trying to level up my language skills and my job is taking a lot of energy. I mastered English and that was a lot of work and it took many years. I use it more than my native language Dutch. It will have to do. Adding a third and a fourth language to that mix is just never going to be a thing for me.