• алсааас [she/they]@lemmy.dbzer0.comM
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    11 days ago

    Thanks for clearing it up! You are correct, English is not my first language. But I’d like to think I’m on the road to C2/proficiency

    Usually I can grasp stuff like this but stress is not rly helping my sleep-deprived brain ^^’

    • sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip
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      11 days ago

      Hey, no problem!

      … sometimes a brief reading of someone’s previous comments can actually be done in good faith, to attempt to better understand someone…

      … even though its often done by poorly intentioned hyperbolic trolls.

      But yeah, as with most people I meet in the internet whose first language is not English, but are conversing in it…

      You speak and understand English better than most Americans I meet and know in the real world.

      Seriously, the average American has the reading comprehension of approximately a 6th or 7th grader… a 12 year old.

      Our education system is horrifically bad compared to every other ‘developed’ nation.

        • sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip
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          10 days ago
          I'm throwing this all in a spoiler as its a wall of text and pretty far off topic

          though I’m curious how you would gauge that based on some comments

          A short explanation would be:

          You can understand words with 5 or more syllables.

          You do not speak almost entirely in slang/memes derived from TikTok.

          You have the patience to read multiple sentences and paragraphs before responding, and you respond to the entirety of what was said, as opposed to … just a small fraction of it.

          … And, this isn’t really reading comprehension, but you do not require repeated praise to continue a conversation, nor do you get irrationally angry when someone suggests you may not be understanding something correctly.

          But this is not what I’d call ‘better than most Americans in general’.

          Its 'better than most Americans I talk to in person.’

          Its a long story, but I ended up homeless for around a year… while disabled.

          Barely managed to end up at a shitty roach motel for most of this year.

          Basically all of my ‘neighbors’ are constantly screaming at each other, getting into fights, occasionally shooting or stabbing each other (lady upstairs got taken out on a stretcher two nights ago)… and all they ever talk about when they aren’t assaulting each other is drugs, idiotic ideas about how to fix their cars that haven’t moved in a year, who stole what from who when, who owes who money…

          … yeah.

          Poverty, bellicosity, and ignorance often go hand in hand.

          • алсааас [she/they]@lemmy.dbzer0.comM
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            10 days ago

            thank you for your feedback. Also I’m sorry you had to go through that…

            Though I do not think that the people are at fault. Just like someone starving isn’t guilty of stealing at a grocery store (if you saw someone shoplifting, no you didn’t)

            It’s the material circumstances, an unjust education system and the resulting cultural/social situation that drive the things you’ve described and all that stems from capitalist exploitation (and the material conditions it causes)

            I think X put it quite well:

            When you live in a poor neighborhood, you are living in an area where you have poor schools. When you have poor schools, you have poor teachers. When you have poor teachers, you get a poor education. When you get a poor education, you can only work in a poor-paying job. And that poor-paying job enables you to live again in a poor neighborhood. So, it’s a very vicious cycle.