Comment by corodra | Hacker News Reader

Comment by corodra | Hacker News Reader

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Question then, would you say that the French had cultural imperialism when most geopolitical issues were conducted in French just a few hundred years ago? Or how about the Latin stranglehold on science and medicine? Why should english, german or polish speakers learn the Latin terms for dick all anything since it's practically a dead language. Who actually speaks Latin without being ironic? Or Italian was forced down every composer threats back in Mozart's day if they wanted to do an opera. Are those too forms of cultural imperialism?

My main point, dont pretend 'cultural imperialism' was invented by the Anglo saxons. Dont give them too much credit. Their egos are inflated as much as it is. All of history had a dominate 'culture'. I think the major difference to this shift to English is the fact the language is so damn easy and efficient compared to others. Maybe not as eloquent. But when it comes to information transfer, English is by far one of the best languages. Maybe that's why its inherently popular? I mean, in Polish, the word for the number 2 can be conjugated 50 some odd ways. Some intelligent anglo in history looked at other languages that conjugate like crazy and said it's fucking stupid. Obviously I'm being slightly hyperbolic. Only slightly.

Plus, the English culture is one where being upfront and abrupt is alright. Makes business real damn easy. It's a very "get to the goddamn point so I can go drink whiskey early" type of culture.

So yea, as a dirty slav, English is champ right now for very good technical reasons.

> dont pretend 'cultural imperialism' was invented by the Anglo saxons

No one was saying this. As you correctly point out, other cultures and languages have been culturally dominant before, and now English is. It's entirely possible in another century or two it will be Mandarin, or Hindi, or who knows what.

> I think the major difference to this shift to English is the fact the language is so damn easy and efficient compared to others

That's a pretty rare take on English. Most people seem to think it's a PITA due to how many different languages it's cribbed from, resulting in next to zero consistent rules.

I have no idea where the myth started that people think English is a tough language for people. The only struggles non native speakers typically have is pronouncing th, usage of she/her, some oddball spellings, over use of same sounding words and if they come from non article languages, articles. That's a crazy short and easy to overcome list in comparison to, oh I dont know, all the goddamn irregular verbs of romance languages. Male/female articles or conjugation orgy fest most languages have. The tone and writing nature of most Asian languages.

Most people I know that do t speak english natively, picked it up pretty damn quick and easy.

Languages are chosen for many different reasons, which are not all obvious. Also it sounds like you're conflating language and culture, which are related things but not the same thing. If I know French, I can communicate with people in countries on three different continents, and the usefulness of a language trumps all other reasons for choosing a language. I've been in a few weird international groups, with people from dozens of countries present, and everyone communicates in French and English (a mix of both really), even though many of the people are multi-lingual, because everyone present knows at least a few snippets of French and English.

Sure, Latin was the language of empire, and then French had something of a small empire with the Holy Romans. Arabic was too for a while, depending on where you were. Now English is the language of empire.

French was spoken by the educated classes in much of the Western world for some time, had a largish colonial empire. Holy Roman Empire (neither Roman or Holy or an Empire) had German as a primary language.

Oh, you're right, of course. Brain fart.

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