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Comment by michaelscott | Hacker News Reader

But why wouldn't he start the conversation in Polish? If the priest responds, he is Polish. If he doesn't, he is Spanish.

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Because addressing someone in a language they might not know seams rude and entitled and also sparks a kind of helplessness in the other and the situation. Addressing someone in a language he knows is polite and has a likely hood of better success of the topic of the conversation and not drifting into a side quest of determining a way to communicate.

Yea I didn't get this logic either. Why would the Polish person be the one assumed to be speaking Latin but the Spanish (literally a language based on Latin) person not? Who says Spanish people can't learn Latin?

Both priests are assumed to understand Latin. The situation they want to avoid is starting up a conversation with someone in a language they don't know.

So the options are:

1) Use Polish, with the risk of being rude if you happen to speak to the Spanish priest

2) Use Latin and ask "do you speak Polish?", and both the Polish and the Spanish priest will understand.

You could of course argue that it's not so very rude to accidentally try to strike up a conversation with someone in a language they don't know, but apparently Tade0's father thinks it is.

because the assumption is that he wanted the child baptized by a Polish priest.

Could it be he just wanted the child baptized, no matter if it was Spanish or Polish priest? Then, starting with Latin is the way to get a priest's attention.

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