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F3nd0 8 hours ago

> easy

> neutral

> leave hurdles of the various national languages to their native speakers

> (context)

Of all the possible languages in the world, how did my comment make you think of English?

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TFNA 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Have you talked to Gen Z about this? In so many countries now, young people are growing up with hours a day spent on English-language social media, and they absorb it by osmosis. These young people don't have the same perception of English being "hard" or not "neutral" as older generations.

A lot of 1990s or early-millennium advocacy for language diversity and non-English interlinguistics doesn't resonate with many young people today. In fact, avoiding English (like antiglobalization ideas more generally) has become associated with the far-right in some countries.

	▲	F3nd0 27 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Well, any language becomes relatively easy when you learn by immersion. That’s how I finally managed to learn English with little effort, after struggling with it for years. Doesn’t mean the language in and of itself is easy. And it most certainly isn’t neutral; just the fact that it’s the native language of several countries and an inherent vehicle of cultural influence disqualifies it as such. I’m not in any way doubting the success of English as a widespread second language, I just find it unfortunate we haven’t gone with an easy, neutral language instead.

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carlosjobim 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It has already been adopted for international communication. Quite an easy and forgiving language, probably because of the above. English it's historically a mix of different language families.

	▲	F3nd0 25 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I wouldn’t call English especially easy and forgiving. Why would you?