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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   930 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 22, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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I responded more the "almost none speak a third language", which I found to be false. In my experience, plenty of people do but it's by no means some universal thing and is mostly restricted to a subsection of the university educated.

I'd say the third language education generally doesn't teach people a third language, it provides a base for effective immersion based learning.

I don't get it. Even though I'm in the same situation as you - my friends tend to know 2 foreign languages - that's still "almost no one".

I'd say it's perhaps 15-20% of the population without foreign parents. I would define almost none as <5%, IE lizardman constant territory.

I just disagree on the facts. I'd cut your numbers by half. That might be above your threshold, but not by much.

Could be a difference between countries as well. You're in Germany, are you not?

Let's not get into the details of where I'm at, but yeah, I spent some time there too. Sure, I agree this probably varies by country, and I haven't seen the entirety of Europe yet.

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