What makes you say that? It was explicitly created as an EU alternative to HN by a person from the Netherlands. They posted about it on HN a few days ago.
I haven't found anything public about where its hosted
The irony is that European alternatives are still in English, when no European country (since the departure of the U.K. from Europe) actually uses that language.
> You're thinking that because the UK left the EU it will change the main language countries use to speak to each others
Yes, and that's precisely the irony. Europeans still need to subject themselves to Anglo "cultural imperialism" or absolutely nothing works, starting with communication across national borders.
A language is a tool, not a nationality or a border.
Your average educated European speaks at least three, one of which is English because it is a good language to have because it is the language of international commerce. This has been the case since many decades and has nothing to do with using the language internally.
But: many people do use it internally. French tourists abroad are more likely to use English than French. European colleagues usually standardize on English, both for their communications as well as for their documentation needs.
Scientific literature is predominantly in English (at least, for now).
So there are many reasons to use English which have nothing to do with allegiance or dependence.
I do find it funny that Brits colloquially describe "Europe" as being foreign, as in, "in Britain" vs "in Europe", or "in Europe" vs "on the continent. Of course, I guess the "the continent" is a loaded term, too.
I'm not saying it doesn't make sense to me, I get it, and it's easier to refer to Europe as "the other" rather than having to use a longer phrase to describe traveling from the British isles to the mainland of continental Europe.
> You would be shocked at how well certain nationalities like the Dutch and Swedes speak English.
Totally. All Northern countries to be fair. And then in my experience at least some Eastern countries (like Slovenia).
Really it seems like the South of Europe is a bit weaker in English, my guess being that their native languages are latin and not germanic (so it's further away from English).
journalduhacker.net (in french)
Perhaps Lemmy may count based on distributed ActivityPub protocol with some servers in Europe.
techposts.eu i reckon
Seems to be US-hosted.
What makes you say that? It was explicitly created as an EU alternative to HN by a person from the Netherlands. They posted about it on HN a few days ago.
I haven't found anything public about where its hosted
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Its founder lives in europe so there's that.
I think he means Hacker News rather than EU Alternatives.
Paul Graham lives in UK.
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Someone should make news.eucombinator.eu…
I also mean Hacker News
The irony is that European alternatives are still in English, when no European country (since the departure of the U.K. from Europe) actually uses that language.
The amount of things wrong is impressive
You're confusing Europe and the EU
You're forgetting about Ireland and Malta
You're thinking that because the UK left the EU it will change the main language countries use to speak to each others
> You're thinking that because the UK left the EU it will change the main language countries use to speak to each others
Yes, and that's precisely the irony. Europeans still need to subject themselves to Anglo "cultural imperialism" or absolutely nothing works, starting with communication across national borders.
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> You're forgetting about Ireland and Malta
In both countries English is only one of the official languages.
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A language is a tool, not a nationality or a border.
Your average educated European speaks at least three, one of which is English because it is a good language to have because it is the language of international commerce. This has been the case since many decades and has nothing to do with using the language internally.
But: many people do use it internally. French tourists abroad are more likely to use English than French. European colleagues usually standardize on English, both for their communications as well as for their documentation needs.
Scientific literature is predominantly in English (at least, for now).
So there are many reasons to use English which have nothing to do with allegiance or dependence.
> Your average European speaks at least three
ok ok I get the point but let's not exaggerate
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The UK did not leave Europe. Just the EU. But also English fluency is widespread, so it’s not a bad starting point.
I do find it funny that Brits colloquially describe "Europe" as being foreign, as in, "in Britain" vs "in Europe", or "in Europe" vs "on the continent. Of course, I guess the "the continent" is a loaded term, too.
I'm not saying it doesn't make sense to me, I get it, and it's easier to refer to Europe as "the other" rather than having to use a longer phrase to describe traveling from the British isles to the mainland of continental Europe.
But still, it amuses me.
English is also the lingua franca (French language) of computers.
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> But also English fluency is widespread, so it’s not a bad starting point.
Being able to string together a couple of sentences is not "being fluent." By that standard, all of America would be fluent in Spanish.
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Ireland and Malta.
You would be shocked at how well certain nationalities like the Dutch and Swedes speak English.
> You would be shocked at how well certain nationalities like the Dutch and Swedes speak English.
Totally. All Northern countries to be fair. And then in my experience at least some Eastern countries (like Slovenia).
Really it seems like the South of Europe is a bit weaker in English, my guess being that their native languages are latin and not germanic (so it's further away from English).
It's because we don't do dubbing but subtitling. Every foreign TV show or movie becomes a mini language class.
The bigger countries do dubbing and it is really noticeable.
Also in Holland we'd pride ourselves on speaking foreign languages much more than being proud of our own.
It has been around 300 million years since the UK drifted away from continental Europe but it is still very much part of it!
The British isles were still connected to the continent 20k years ago.
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The UK is still in Europe. They didn't move from the continent.
Except for Ireland.