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?

  • AdaA
    7·
    3 months 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

    • Siegfried@lemmy.world
      7·
      3 months ago

      I guess you visited Iguazú… we have kind of a funny situation there cause we tend to understand each other “pretty well” while still speaking our own languages. That has to do with how similar our languages (and cultures) are and with how cool and welcoming brasilian people is.

      • AdaA
        3·
        3 months ago

        Yep, Iguazú. I likely felt it because my Spanish is not great, so even though I could make myself understood by Argentinians, the poor Brasilians stood no chance as I murdered Spanish in an attempt to communicate :)