@iron_bug it's a bit unsettling how uninterested people are in learning other languages. for me it was one of the greatest things to learn: the possibility to understand people and books you weren't able to before. even just a tiny bit of a language can be useful, and at some point you can learn from context.

even with so many people going to higher schools now here in germany, which require learning two languages, almost nobody bothers to read originals. mainstream stuff is guaranteed to be translated to german anyway.

those are the things where i start to think the NPC and philosophical zombie memes are true.