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Chance encounter
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this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2023
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Lots of us are from non-English countries...
Right. Of course I understand that.
I asked where people who don't understand the reference come from. That was my question, so I can understand better what places haven't heard the rhyme before.
I didn't know that this one specifically was centered on the United States and Canada before looking it up.
Well, it's in English. Being the lingua franca really made monolingual English speakers forget how language works
There are over one billion English speakers on this planet and only 1/3 of them are American, where the rhyme originates. So an American asking someone who has never heard the song before where they're from is a valid question for the other 700,000 English speaking humans from the 8+ countries where English is the most common language.
The billion figure is including non-native speakers who mostly don't learn rhymes. Also, a billion minus 1/3 is 700,000? Let's put it this way. If I posted about a rhyme in French, would it make sense to say "Oh, really you don't know this saying? Where are you from?" Any place that doesn't speak french is the answer.
Well maybe he wanted to know if this was a thing in for example the UK, NZ, Australia, South Africa, India, etc. That's a valid question. Also, maybe give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he meant 700,000,000.
"Over one billion" - the current number is around 1.1 billion, so if my napkin math is correct that's 1,100,000 x 0.66 = 726,000. Close enough for the girls I go with.
If you've ever learned a foreign language, especially in primary school, one of the first things you learn are nursery rhymes. I remember my French professor singing Frère Jacques to the class on day one of college.
Pretty much every country in Central and South America and a few islands in the Caribbean speak Spanish. They don't speak the same Spanish dialect as Spain, nor do they generally speak the same dialect as countries that border them. Languages evolve, and language alone doesn't typically inform things like nursery rhymes, culture does.
So congratulations, you're ignorant in three different languages.
Well maybe he wanted to know if this was a thing in for example the UK, NZ, Australia, South Africa, India, etc. That's a valid question. Also, maybe give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he meant 700,000,000.