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Comment by ckemere

9 months ago

I can’t read Les Miserable in its original French (despite 5 years of high school French class), but I love it in translation. Does that make me functionally illiterate?

If you were studying French literature at a university in France, it might be slightly concerning.

  • I guess my point is that maybe there is a conflation here of breadth of vocabulary and comprehension. Does my inability to understand a Drake dis track mean that I’m illiterate?

    • Yeah, I’m not sure when “illiterate” stopped meaning “unable to read” and started meaning “doesn’t possess a broad vocabulary on every arbitrary subject, including archaic words from foreign countries”. I’m not sure I like this new definition.