That doesn't make Hacker News European. It is American. Y Combinator is American even if pg is originally British. Stripe is American but its founders are Irish.

	▲	badsectoracula 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yeah i know, my response was a clarification that BenoitEssiambre was referring to the founder, not the site itself. My interpretation of the "so there's that" part of the message, was an acknowledgement that Hacker News is hosted in US, but if nothing else the founder is living in UK.
	▲	2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[deleted]

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BenoitEssiambre 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I also mean Hacker News

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noodlebird 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

techposts.eu i reckon

	▲	timeon an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Seems to be US-hosted.

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fsflover 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Perhaps Lemmy may count based on distributed ActivityPub protocol with some servers in Europe.

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drnick1 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The irony is that European alternatives are still in English, when no European country (since the departure of the U.K. from Europe) actually uses that language.

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nolok 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The amount of things wrong is impressive

You're confusing Europe and the EU

You're forgetting about Ireland and Malta

You're thinking that because the UK left the EU it will change the main language countries use to speak to each others

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drnick1 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> You're thinking that because the UK left the EU it will change the main language countries use to speak to each others

Yes, and that's precisely the irony. Europeans still need to subject themselves to Anglo "cultural imperialism" or absolutely nothing works, starting with communication across national borders.

	▲	palata 8 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> Europeans still need to subject themselves to Anglo "cultural imperialism" or absolutely nothing works, starting with communication across national borders. Do you have a single clue about Europe? That's not true at all.
	▲	schubidubiduba 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		The english language has ceased to be something unique to the anglocultural world a while ago. You're making this out to be much more than it is
	▲	throw__away7391 39 minutes ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		And the US still uses Arabic numerals in spite of banning visas for basically every Arab country in the world.
	▲	timeon 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		We actually already use Globish that has different idioms and so on. End we can express different kind of informations there.

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aleph_minus_one 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> You're forgetting about Ireland and Malta

In both countries English is only one of the official languages.

	▲	nolok 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		And how does that change anything to what is being said ? English is only one of the official languages of the UN or NATO or the WHO or ...
	▲	anigbrowl an hour ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Hardly anyone uses Irish in daily life or for official purposes, notwithstanding its official status. 99% of the Irish you hear outside a classroom is performative.
	▲	ben_w 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Mae hyn yn wir o fewn y DU hefyd. :P

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jacquesm 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A language is a tool, not a nationality or a border.

Your average educated European speaks at least three, one of which is English because it is a good language to have because it is the language of international commerce. This has been the case since many decades and has nothing to do with using the language internally.

But: many people do use it internally. French tourists abroad are more likely to use English than French. European colleagues usually standardize on English, both for their communications as well as for their documentation needs.

Scientific literature is predominantly in English (at least, for now).

So there are many reasons to use English which have nothing to do with allegiance or dependence.

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pepinator 3 hours ago | parent [-]

> Your average European speaks at least three

ok ok I get the point but let's not exaggerate

	▲	palata 5 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		It was edited to "average educated European", whatever that means. But I think two languages is probably not exagerating. And not only in Europe. People have their native language and usually an international one (in Europe that would be English). And then there are similar languages. Say a Spanish person will speak Spanish and English, and possibly French/Italian/Portuguese, so that quickly goes up to 3. Also in many countries there are already multiple languages (a portion of Spain speaks Catalan and Spanish as native languages, then probably English as international language, and they are probably not bad in French/Italian because of the similarity). Same in the northern country that are all germanic languages: Swedish is pretty similar to Norwegian for instance, both are not too far to German, and everybody there speaks English fluently. And then if you go in the Eastern Europe... like in Slovenia people seem to all speak 5 languages, it's insane :-).
	▲	BeetleB 3 minutes ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Two American tourists were backpacking in Europe when a car pulled up next to them. The driver rolled down his window and asked in german:” Where is the nearest diner?” The two Americans, not knowing a fraction of German, stared blankly at the driver. “Sorry, but we have no idea what you are saying.” The driver tried again in French and again was met with blank stares and shakes of the head from the two tourists. Getting frustrated, he tried again in Italian, in Spanish, each time receiving nothing but sheepish smiles from the two of them. Finally, he cursed under his breath and drove away angrily. The first American asked his partner:” Maybe we should learn a second language.” His partner shrugged and replied:” Why? That dude knew four languages and it didn’t help him.”
	▲	retired an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		It has been edited to "average educated European". If going by tertiary education, that is about 30% to 35% of the European population. I wouldn't be surprised if that group speaks three languages. In Spain it is typical to speak three of Spanish, Catalan, Valencian, Galician, Basque, Portugese, Arabic, English. In The Netherlands basically anyone speaks Dutch and English plus a third language, usually Frisian, Limburgish, German, French, Spanish, Turkish or Arabic.

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tene80i 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The UK did not leave Europe. Just the EU. But also English fluency is widespread, so it’s not a bad starting point.

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direwolf20 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

English is also the lingua franca (French language) of computers.

	▲	ogogmad 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Fun fact: The term Lingua Franca originally meant something closer to Portuguese than the French spoken at the time. Eventually though, the French language did become the Lingua Franca truly, for some time.

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drnick1 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> But also English fluency is widespread, so it’s not a bad starting point.

Being able to string together a couple of sentences is not "being fluent." By that standard, all of America would be fluent in Spanish.

	▲	hagbard_c 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Neither is pedantry a sign of intelligence, a message many a contributor to this here site would be good to take to heart. As to the choice of language English is and will most likely remain the lingua franca (pun intended) in most of Europe as it is the language which is most often learned as a second language. While many Europeans are not fluent in this language they do manage to read and make themselves understood in it. This makes it not a bad starting point just like the grandparent stated.