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Think Chinese. China is huge, and many languages are spoken. People from one side of the country cannot converse with people from the other. However they all read the same characters, so they all r...
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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33665 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
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Think Chinese. China is huge, and many languages are spoken. People from one side of the country cannot converse with people from the other. However they all read the same characters, so they all read the same newspaper, and communicate in writing. (I find this mind-boggling.) Also, if you are in the Far East you can observe this kind of conversation before a meeting starts: In English; "which language do we use?" followed by some discussion until they find a common language, then they switch to that one (or stay with English).