Ah yes, what an adorable Facebook group.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve almost no sympathy for this one.\u00a0 We often get all high and mighty about people learning another language for our convenience.\u00a0 Coming out of an American\u2019s mouth, it\u2019s appalling.\u00a0\u00a0 Chances are good anyone joining the aforesaid group is fluent in exactly one<\/em> language \u2013English.\u00a0 Chances are equally as good that they\u2019ve not traveled enough to know what it\u2019s like to try to get by in a day to day situation in one\u2019s non-native language.<\/p>\n Unless and until you\u2019ve followed complex instructions in a language that is not your native language, you don\u2019t get<\/em> to have an opinion on this.<\/p>\n I\u2019m saying this as someone who does speak more than one language by the way.\u00a0 My French is good enough to do minor tech support[1]<\/a>, I can follow a Karate class taught in an Okinawan dialect[2]<\/a> and can understand Spanish well enough to follow a movie without reading subtitles.<\/p>\n Those are easy <\/em>languages\/situations, I have a talent<\/em> for languages and it\u2019s still rough.\u00a0 My bank account, credit rating or legal future are not involved in a fine understanding of any of those languages.\u00a0 To expect someone to \u201cjust pick up\u201d English well enough to handle this is absurd and self-righteous.\u00a0 Especially out of people I expect don\u2019t<\/em> have any talent for languages themselves.<\/p>\n Show a little imagination and empathy people!<\/p>\n
[1]<\/a> try it sometime on four years of high school French learned at a time before most computer terminology was even invented<\/em><\/p>\n