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Metus comments on Open Thread April 16 - April 22, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: Tenoke 16 April 2014 07:05AM

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Comment author: Metus 19 April 2014 12:28:06AM 1 point [-]

True. I come from the other side growing up in Germany and having met with a lot of foreign knowledge workers unwilling to learn even a lick of German. I actually know of several people that are unable to say "No, thank you" or "One beer please" and unwilling to learn. Personally I see this as highly disrespectful of the host country. After stating this opinion the unwillingness is then justified with the international status of English.

Anyhow, we are delving off into politics and thus I'd like to end this debate at this point with your understanding. I hope the downvote is not from you and moreso that is not because of that line only.

Comment author: gwern 19 April 2014 01:19:35AM 3 points [-]

Yes, living in a foreign country is a substantially different proposition (and I'd guess that the correlated increases in income would be much higher). But comparing to Germany highlights part of why it's such a bad idea for Americans: the population of America alone is 3.78x that of Germany, never mind the entire Anglophone world.