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by salusinarduis 1233 days ago
Students waste a tremendous amount of time learning these things which could be better spent elsewhere.

What if what humanity needs to realize is that language learning is a waste of time, unless you are studying the history of language. There's no reason we shouldn't have only one planetary language, besides the whims of governments and nationalists.

I dream of a advanced designed language that incorporates the best features of existing written and verbal systems. Now that's a goal worth spending time on.
5 comments
__float 1233 days ago
That discards a _lot_ of culture along with it, no?

Learning languages is fun, and the people you can meet (which you wouldn't otherwise) and things you learn about your own native languages is worth it to me.

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throwaway9191aa 1233 days ago
I just disagree entirely with this. Isn't Esperanto that planetary language? Or possibly even English? Apparently it doesn't scale a 8 billion people, and I'll say that is A Good Thing.

What if what humanity needs is to realize that you don't have to scale to the limits of the planet for something to be worth while.

Maybe the "time better spent elsewhere" should be spent learning that we are all humans with amazing cultural backgrounds, and what could be a better way to engage with others than through language?

I've just been reading way to much history of South America recently to accept this idea, but let's be honest, the entire world is based on this concept. Every time somebody tries to setup a "Planetary Language/Religion/Culture" it comes at the expense of "the others". Fuck this idea.

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Raidion 1233 days ago
The most learned language on Duolingo is English, which is as close to a universal language as we have.

I think anything that allows other people to get outside their box and learn more about (and from!) people who don't share the same cultural background is a positive for the world.

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theshrike79 1233 days ago
Languages have a lot of nuance and culture behind them.

All this is lost if we all switched to Esperanto tomorrow.

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_lnwk 1233 days ago
What you're advocating for is culture genocide.
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