Memes

German here, speaking english fluently, enough french to get everything done while on vacation in France or Wallony and learning Japanese atm.

Include anglo Canadians in there too!

Complaining about bilingual (english + french) positions in the public service is a favorite hobby of anglo public servants, as if the french ones didn't need to learn a second language to get the job... Heck, it's not rare to see/hear one argue that french Canadians should just start speaking english and stop bothering them about their "unique culture"...

But hey, it's not racism... Or so they say 🤷

where i grew up in burger land, back in the 80s, the public schools were teaching us all spanish in from age 5 to 10. not like true bilingual education, but we had a spanish class once a week. it last about 2 years before the white nationalists--who panic at the idea of working class people easily communicating with each other--got it shut down. between that and some years working with seasonal agricultural workers practicing their english, i am at the comprehension level of an inebriated toddler. i wish i had more opportunities to practice. honestly, the US should have all its signs in english and spanish anyway, but you know the reactionaries would go info a full blown pogrom over even a whiff of that being proposed.

i remember some small business tyrant in florida in the 2000s called up my work one time and wanted me to pass along his complaint to my boss that our phone system had an option to "press ocho for espanol". he said that our company even offering the option to "those people" was wrong... in FLORIDA... the state with the name that means "land of flowers" in spanish.

The right isn't big on education, and it really shows.

The distance from Atlanta to LA is about the same as the distance between Paris and Beirut. There is somewhat less linguistic diversity on the Altanta/LA route than the Paris/Beirut route (because of the genocide).

Pretending not to know is the preferable choice for me.