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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 18, 2023

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You know how it's pretty easy for the average kid of 7 or so to learn a new language, but it's much harder for most adults?

Usually this is because adults don't need it. If I throw you in china or korea without google translate - you will learn fast. I know this because my father learned two languages at the age of 55 in the 90s when his job wanted for him to live in a different country.

A lot of adult immigrants who would really benefit from speaking good English struggle with it, though. Latinos can get by fine in most of the Southern US, but if you’re a 50 year old Cambodian or Turk or Russian you’d benefit a great deal from fluency in terms of both jobs and daily life, and yet those people often never learn good English. Before she died my 103 year old great grandmother still spoke in pretty broken English with a strong German accent after like 80 years in the US. And she wasn’t a SAHM, worked various retail and clerical jobs in the 60s and 70s but had limited progression because of language, would definitely have benefited from fluency.

I agree that extremely motivated people dropped into a totally foreign culture are forced somewhat to survive (although many do so barely to the level where they can buy food and work - if necessary - the most basic job) .