If you lived on a border of a country that speaks different languages how is it chosen what language you speak? If you lived on the border do you just learn both languages?

Or is it more if you lived even like 500 meters of a border do you learn the language of the country your in? Do people choose it based on nearest popular city to where they’re at?

  • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
    13·
    2 days ago

    You realize that speaking a language involves talking to another person, right?? So you speak what the interlocutor speaks in any given situation… and if both parties speak both equally well, then they generally speak a mix of both, based on whim or topic.

  • Sundial@lemm.ee
    111·
    2 days ago

    Language isn’t defined by borders. What people speak in an area is what they grew up speaking and have learned to speak.

  • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
    3·
    2 days ago

    Depends heavily on which border, I think. I live in eastern Austria and don’t know any Czech, Slovak or Hungarian despite those countries being within an hour’s drive of where I live. For the most part I expect people in Austria to speak German, I don’t expect people even in border villages of Czechia, Slovakia or Hungary to speak German; if they do, that is a nice surprise.

    Some years ago, in a border village in one of these countries, a child spoke to me in the local language; I tried speaking in German and English, but the child didn’t understand either, I could barely say “I don’t speak (your language)” in that language. Eventually I figured out he was trying to ask me how old I was, and I could show that on my fingers…

  • NotSteve_@lemmy.ca
    2·
    2 days ago

    I live in Ottawa, ON, Canada which has Gatineau, Québec on the other side of the river. A lot of people here are bilingual and will just switch to whatever language works better for the person they’re talking to. The default language on the Québec side is French and the default on the Ontario side is English

  • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
    3·
    2 days ago

    Depends on how much interaction there is qith the people across the border, but it’s common to know (not learn, since you naturally acquire it) both.

  • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
    5·
    2 days ago

    Or is it more if you lived even like 500 meters of a border do you learn the language of the country your in?

    That tends to be how it’s done. States tend to be rather protective of their official language, and it’s generally impractical to send your children to school in a different country. Being somewhat proficient in the other country’s language is quite common, but to truly be bilingual you pretty much need to be some kind of ethnic or religious minority.

    Also depends a lot on the relationship between the countries and languages; some borders are easier to cross, and some languages easier to learn.

  • yessikg@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    1·
    2 days ago

    Most people who live at the border tend to speak both, specially if people cross the border everyday to work

  • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    4·
    2 days ago

    I speak a little Spanish, but no Portuguese, and my time in Brazil right near the border with two Spanish speaking countries was a challenge, because most folks there didn’t speak Spanish despite the location.

    Some folks do of course, but most people I encountered didn’t have any Spanish

    I have zero idea how representative that is of other borders

  • edric@lemm.ee
    3·
    2 days ago

    Whatever the majority of the people in the area are speaking. Another factor is which side of the border the community interacts with more. If say the city is technically closer to an urban area on the bordering country than it’s neighbor within its own country, then they likely interact more with the former so will speak that language more.