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Comment by frenchy | Hacker News Reader

> language / multiculturalism is exactly the basketcase PRC wants to avoid

And the EU is probably on the verge of collapse, seeing as trilingualism is basically expected from anyone university educated.

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You're pushing it too far. Trilingualism is expected in the EU for University educated people, which are a minority. In the Indian system not being trilingual means you are at a severe disadvantage, whereas you can do pretty well in the EU knowing only English, let alone being bilingual.

Trilingualism in the EU is expected for high school educated people, not university.

Was educated there, we were taught the local language, English and one more language of our choice (I picked Spanish)

Nobody is actually expected (emphasis on expected) to really know the third taught language beyond a couple phrases later in life. Many do, but it's not a universal fact.

It's more common for people to know two "local" languages (living near a border) and English, than the third language taught in school.

Nah. The expected level at the third language is not sufficient for you to live in it, and you will forget most of it. I took Spanish too and I now barely remember anything.

Less about collapse and more about progress. Having common language/culture facilitates rapid development which PRC did relative to India. Also facilitates common market and conditions for supporting national champions which EU struggles with relative to PRC. India/EU embrace multiculturalism because it has no choice, system is too weak / politics to fraught to meaningfully unify, even if they wanted to. They're not going to collapse or even stagnate, but they're also not going anywhere fast.

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