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Comment by huytersd | Hacker News Reader

I’ve seen Chinese and Pakistani people that have lived in New York City for 30+ years and don’t speak a lick of English. Their situation is different though since they have a local community to rely on that speak the same language.

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Similarly, I knew a Polish guy who couldn't speak any English after 25 years in London. He once told me "Owen is dead". I had no idea who Owen was but figured it must have been a friend of his. He must've seen by the look of sympathy on my face that I didn't understand, so he beckoned me into the kitchen and pointed at the oven - "Owen".

I'm an Eastern European myself. Come on! This is really is just nitpicking some unimportant details of pronunciation. It's understandable enough.

Plot twist: Owen was in the oven.

I'm married to an immigrant who learned her first English as an adult. I have seen a clear pattern: Those who marry someone who speaks their native language rarely learn much English--they can communicate with their spouse and the community is enough for most other needs. Those who marry someone who doesn't speak their native language learn at least enough English to reasonably communicate with their spouse. It's a much greater driving force.

My wife speaks decidedly broken English (to be expected in someone who learned their first word of English at 43 and didn't even know our alphabet until adulthood), yet now and then she ends up acting as an interpreter for those with even less English than she has.

Spouse or people that need to provide. Invariably the man in the family ends up knowing English unless he’s old and depends on his son.

Disagree. I know multiple providers that speak very little English. There is enough of a Chinese community here that they can work in Chinese businesses where the lack of English isn't a big handicap.

I have no doubt people can stay in linguistic pockets if they want.

I just can't imagine making it past year 1 somewhere nobody spoke my language and not deciding, "I guess I'd better figure this out."

Try imagining being a prisoner in a soviet psychiatric "hospital"...

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