This is a just a correction, but it seems fitting on a post about language and learning languages.
"Half" is the noun you are looking for. "Halve" sounds slightly different and means "to split in half."
iii@mander.xyz 1 day ago
I work at a place where halve of the people speak dutch, the other halve come from all over the world.
It helps when everyone speaks the same language, and can jump in and out of conversation whenever.
It’s illegal for them to actually ban the use of Dutch, as this is in Belgium. But it’s also just a dick move to exclude halve of the people from conversation, just because it’s convenient to some.
thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I also work in a very international community, with a small minority Norwegians (in Norway). While we often communicate in English, I have to admit that I find it a bit strange that people choose to move to Norway and work in Norway, but don’t learn the language well enough to participate in a conversation at the lunch table.
Sure, often we’ll swap to English if a non-Norwegian speaker comes in, but sometimes I’m just tired and don’t want to bother with the extra effort. I massively appreciate the colleagues that bother to learn Norwegian.
Squirrelsdrivemenuts@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
I have recently moved to france and have been learning french for the last few years (long before moving). I still have difficulty with lunch conversation and after speaking to everyone outside of work in french I appreciate it so much that I work at an international place where everyone speaks english, even though that is also a second language for me. Imagine how tired your colleagues are at lunch after not speaking their own language anywhere but at home and appreciate that you are capable of helping them a little bit by speaking english.
iii@mander.xyz 1 day ago
Depens on if they intend to move permanently, no? Most of my non-belgian colleagues don’t intend to stay in belgium long-term. Can’t fault them for that :)
When they do intend on moving permanently, I share your point of view.
thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I don’t think it really makes a difference, as long as you’re staying somewhere for any significant amount of time (i.e. months) it makes sense to start learning the language.
I mean, it’s common courtesy to try to learn enough of the local language to buy stuff and ask for directions when your just on vacation.
I was in Germany for half a year during my studies. To me it was obvious that I needed to learn the language from day one, because I had no intent of going around and expecting everyone else to adjust to me not knowing the language. I have a very hard time understanding how someone could move to a country for years, and still not learn the language because “it’s not permanent”.
wewbull@feddit.uk 9 hours ago
When you’re working you need to communicate in a lot more depth than that though. That’s exactly why they want to talk Spanish, to speed up communication or be more precise.
Social language skills are on the easier side. You can get away with a lot of mistakes.
iii@mander.xyz 1 day ago
You convinced me on that one. Perhaps they should enough of the language for day-to-day niceties. The particular problem with Belgium is that this means they should learn both basic French and Dutch :-p Most french speaking Belgians don’t even do that.