tinyE: Really?
Really?
Everybody else?
My bullshit detector is about to explode. :P
Well, okay, it wasn't 100% of the people in the thread, but it was certainly a percentage higher than 80% who had those opinions. (also thank goodness you used the ":P" symbol, for a moment I feared you were 100% serious.)
Kleetus: Ti kaneis, kala? (=How are you doing?)
Since you asked in greeklish, here's the answers in greeklish, with english translation, for whoever might want to know what I reply:
Eknevristika kapos me to thema exthes kai hthela na po th gnomi mou. Simera isos nioso kalytera afou teleioso n' apanto edo (=I was frustrated by the thread yesterday and wanted to rant. Today, I might feel better after I get done with answering to the feedback here.)
Kleetus: Pos se lene? (=What's your name?)
Treasure, fysika. An ennoeis to onoma pou exo sthn alithini zoh, ayto den se afora. Ego den se rothsa to diko sou onoma alloste. (=Treasure, of course. If you mean my r-l name, that doesn't concern you. I haven't asked you for your real name after all.)
dtgreene: The way I see it, this is an English language site, and therefore reviews should be in English. Reviews that are in a language I don't understand are, to me, as useless as reviews that are actual nonsense or spam.
If people want to read/write reviews that aren't in English, they should use sites that are in the appropriate language. (Or, if a site wants to support non-English reviews, they should at least put in a filter so that people only have to see reviews in the language(s) that they understand.)
Note that this also applies to the forum (excluding the explicitly non-English subforums, of course), especially since non-English posts here have a high probability of being spam.
The problem with finding sites that have non-english reviews is that I have to specifically go out looking for them, as their appearance in the search results/click number is lower than the English stuff. And oftentimes, greek sites aren't very original either (I know of a couple sites that all they do is take articles from English sites and translate them, oftentimes without even attributing to the source!).
As for the foreign forums, hardly anybody visits them -I tried to post in the French one initially, when it was first made, but I could feel the tumbleweeds rolling around and was discouraged.
zeogold: Man, and here I thought we Americans were the only one with the backwards view of, "We all speak English here, so if you don't, get out!"
Apparently, not only Americans have this opinion. If I'm not mistaken, a German (a German, of all people!) said pretty much this in that thread, amongst others.
Treasure: P.S I wrote the stuff here and not at the thread, as I wanted to rant without getting downvoted -thank you for your understanding...
zeogold: Now, now. You know that this is the horrible fate of all fools who dare disagree with everybody else on a rational basis.
I know, just tried to avoid that fate somewhat, as I hope I'll reach a nice round 1000 in a month or so. Other than that, I wouldn't normally care about the number either, but I also have a tendency to think "Everybody hates me!" if I see a post of mine low-rated -last time this happened was in a mass low-rating in the old Ninja Giveaway thread, where I was apparently caught amongst crossfire, but when I first saw it I thought, "Why was I low-rated? I didn't do anything!". Anyways, the sentimental part of my brain tends to interpret low-ratings as a big deal, ignoring the logical part of my brain.
tinyE: Especially if their argument is a total crock. :P
Err, is the tongue symbol a way to deceive me so that I won't address what you say after all?
If so, if by "their argument" you mean mine, could you please explain in what way you think my argument is a total crock?
Avogadro6: I felt more or less the same way for a long time, but in time I came to appreciate the little understanding of English I've got. And not only for its obvious practical advantages.
Learning a new language is not just learning another way of communicating, it's also a different way of
thinking. Each language has something unique to them that simply doesn't have any equivalent in other languages. There are words, sayings and concepts that I could never learned from my mother language alone. And I feel a richer person for having learned them.
People who speak only one language for their entire lives are missing out.
Well, personally, the only reason I appreciate the fact I know English and French is the fact that I can
consume content in these languages e.g. books, films, youtube videos etc In regards to English, their literature isn't worth much before the 20th century (Shakespeare is way overrated imo -the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Cretan_Renaissance_literature]Cretans Vincenzos Cornaros and Chortatzis[/url] are way better), the french literature is better, but English trumps French in regards to the sheer amount of films, articles and youtube videos made. As for italian (since that is your mother tongue) it also sure has some pretty awesome cultural content as well. In short, I don't care all that much about communicating (I'm more of an introvert) but about consuming content. And even there I must be missing something, because I'm not certain if all that many things distinguish 2 cultures from each other in their way of thinking -e.g the English have the famed protestant work ethic, but I'm not certain how I can define e.g French-ness....
tl;dr: I sure like knowing English and French, as a wider array of cultural (and non) products is available to me, but other than that, if it weren't for those, I wouldn't see much benefit coming from it (being able to speak to an Englishman isn't very thrilling, and I'd rather he knew Greek...).