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by tokenadult
4533 days ago
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Present reality is that anywhere east of the Rockies may as well be a foreign nation. As an American who lives in the central region of the United States, I call baloney on that statement. My HN user profile discloses that I have been to all fifty states of the United States and some of the other territories of my country. The United States really is startlingly homogeneous, all over the country. One illustration of this is the role of English as a national interlanguage unifying all ethnic groups. Only about one-fourth of Americans have ancestors who were speakers of English before arriving in North America. (Sure enough, strictly less than one-fourth of my ancestors were English speakers, even though my family name is English.) Two of my four grandparents (all of whom were born in the United States) received the entirety of their schooling in German rather than in English, but both were perfectly able to communicate with me in English. (Another grandparent grew up in a Norwegian-speaking household, although all of her school lessons were in English.) The United States has a great deal of cultural, ethnic, and even today linguistic diversity, which is a blessing to the country, but the United States also has a great deal of shared culture and ability to communicate in one language from east to west and from north to south that is quite amazing in other countries. Only a little more than half of the people in China even have a common language for conversation.[1] By contrast, people in the United States can use a common language that takes them not only all over their own country, but increasingly all over the world. [1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-23975037 http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-03/07/content_5812838... |
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