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To: tlozo
That is not what I am arguing. There is a lot more nuance in this situation. Most, if not all countries require knowledge of the language in order to become a citizen, this isn't up for debate.

The situation in Ukraine is quite a bit different though. Let me draw a hypothetical analogue. Lets say you lived in California all of your life. Your speak English of course, and maybe you had some Spanish in school, but you are barely competent in it, if that. Most people in California speak English, except for some pockets of cities and other areas where Spanish dominates. Now lets suppose that tomorrow, California seceded from the US, and elected a radical government that decided that the official language of the new country would be Spanish, and that everyone must learn Spanish.

In this example, would you consider all the people for whom English was the first language "lazy" if they didn't want to start speaking Spanish? Of course not. Its very unreasonable to require people to change their first language when they haven't moved or intentionally put themselves in such a position. A very large portion of the territory of Ukraine contains people for whom Russian is their first language. They learned it in school, and they have never spoken anything different for their entire lives. Its just not reasonable to expect these people to switch languages just because the US installed some idiot President who wants to promote idiotic nationalism.

18 posted on 11/20/2019 7:55:24 AM PST by billakay
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To: billakay

Estonian citizenship test has a language section. Many Russians are living in Estonia since 1991 and have never learned the language and therefore are not citizens. If you live in a country learn the language and not expect everyone else to accommodate you.


19 posted on 11/20/2019 8:11:55 AM PST by tlozo
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