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Context is an interesting key here, I think. That point in the US coincided with a increased interest in First Nations, and in some places a renewed attempt to

Context is an interesting key here, I think. That point in the US coincided with a increased interest in First Nations, and in some places a renewed attempt to preserve their heritages, especially linguistically. The US generally sees itself as a nation of immigrants and one axis of its "Freedom of Speech" has historically seen the usefulness to speak one's own language, whatever it may be. Diversity of languages has been a goal for the US at various times in its cultural history. In that context, "what's the most diverse language that Americans speak?" is a question you can ask, and an answer you can find without much difficulty. Japan had one and only one national language. Japan didn't have the culture of thinking of itself as a melting pot where many languages might meet. It probably wouldn't have thought to ask that question at all "what's the most diverse language that the Japanese speak?" In practice, we can assume that's also why it confused the Japanese for so long in the war, it wasn't a question to think of themselves, it probably was a hard question to ask of Americans if they saw "English" as the national language they might also not think to ask "what other languages do Americans speak?" or maybe even "why isn't this English or a derivative of/code for English?"

wbl 2y ago
Oh no it's very hard. You go to NYC and spend weeks in barber shops and ethnic restaurants until you hear the fragments of the nearly extinct tongue. Name the language and it is likely spoken in the five boroughs.
- dullcrisp 2y ago
  Ranking individual things as more or less diverse than other things is a gross abuse of the concept of diversity anyway. But yeah cataloging the set languages spoken in the US is likely impossible in any meaningful way.
- speakspokespok 2y ago
  A buddy from Latin America who barely spoke English moves to the US. Specifically, he moves to Bushwick, Brooklyn, NYC. He goes, "They all say, 'You gotta learn English. This is America!' but I can't understand any of them - even the Puerto Ricans." First thought in my head was 'dude, you're learning English on hard mode'.
shiroiushi 2y ago
While Japan indeed has only one national language, in practice it has many different dialects of that language which are not very mutually intelligible. I live here, any my girlfriend says she can't understand lots of people from various more-remote places. She can't even understand people from the opposite side of her own prefecture. So people frequently have to switch to the standard "Tokyo dialect" when talking to people from other parts of the country. Of course, this is probably lessening over time with mass communications, similar to how Americans largely speak with a "midwestern" or "Chicago" dialect used commonly on TV.

wbl 2y ago

Oh no it's very hard. You go to NYC and spend weeks in barber shops and ethnic restaurants until you hear the fragments of the nearly extinct tongue. Name the language and it is likely spoken in the five boroughs.

dullcrisp 2y ago
Ranking individual things as more or less diverse than other things is a gross abuse of the concept of diversity anyway. But yeah cataloging the set languages spoken in the US is likely impossible in any meaningful way.
speakspokespok 2y ago
A buddy from Latin America who barely spoke English moves to the US. Specifically, he moves to Bushwick, Brooklyn, NYC. He goes, "They all say, 'You gotta learn English. This is America!' but I can't understand any of them - even the Puerto Ricans." First thought in my head was 'dude, you're learning English on hard mode'.

shiroiushi 2y ago

While Japan indeed has only one national language, in practice it has many different dialects of that language which are not very mutually intelligible. I live here, any my girlfriend says she can't understand lots of people from various more-remote places. She can't even understand people from the opposite side of her own prefecture. So people frequently have to switch to the standard "Tokyo dialect" when talking to people from other parts of the country. Of course, this is probably lessening over time with mass communications, similar to how Americans largely speak with a "midwestern" or "Chicago" dialect used commonly on TV.