This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Is it that surprising that your average person in another country is easy to get on with? I've been to a fair few different countries and the everyday people you interact with are lovely (except France).
It's the fucking politicians you've got to look out for, and not just the foreign ones.
It's funny that I've never had bad experiences with the French and most of my visits to France were to Paris.
Then again I do speak French and try and take advantage of being over there to exercise my language knowledge in it as much as I can.
In my experience people almost everywhere (well, not in English-speaking countries, probably because English is the present day lingua franca so it's kinda expected that you can speak it) generally appreciate you trying to speak their language even if you're pretty bad at it and just trying to learn the local "good day", " goodbye" and "thank you" will get you a lot of goodwill.
Except in the Netherlands, where your risk a response of “I’m not your Dutch teacher, we will speak English”. (Actually happened to a former colleague of mine.)
I've lived in The Netherlands and they're "complicated" if you're used to, for example, English-style of politeness or even Mediterranean-style exuberance.
They tend to be very direct, objective-oriented and seemingly cold/closed towards strangers (they open up more with friends and family), so for example if you're in a work environment and one person's trying to do things in broken Dutch is hindering the actual accomplishment of the work objectives (for example, in a work meeting), that will probably be pointed out to them, though I've never seen it done so rudelly.
They also tend to be pretty proud of their English-language speaking abilities and when you're just learning Dutch and try to speak to them in it, often switch to English when they spot (from the accent) that somebody comes from an English-speaking country (so for me, who am Portuguese, they didn't tend to do it and I could just silently ignore it when they did because they couldn't be sure I actually knew English, but I had friends and colleagues over there from Britain, US and Australia who constantly got that and for whom it was a lot harder to learn the local language), though I don't think that applies in your example.
It bet that happenned in a professional environment or some kind of professional situation.
That said, that specific telling off would be considered rude even in Dutch terms: if a person's attempts at using Dutch are hindering doing the work, one is supposed to tell them that as the reason to switch to English (say, "other people are waiting behind you in the queue" or "we don't have time to do this meeting in Dutch", though one will probably not get a "I'm sorry but" or "I'm afraid that" or other such decorations to soften the blow which you would get in most other countries. In that quote of yours the other person making it about themselves "I'm not your Dutch teacher" and just bossing the other person "we will"(!), would be considered rude even by Dutch standards IMHO.
Personally (and note that I lived over 8 years in the Netherlands and do speak the language), had somebody told me off like that my reaction would probably be to not give a shit and carry on speaking Dutch since that person made it about themselves and I'm just as entitled to do it the way I see fit as they are to do it their way and I very much suspect (can't be totally sure) this reaction comes from that part of me that are the elements of the Dutch mindset I've taken in from having lived there so long (certainly the whole "I'm just as entitled to my preferences as you to yours" feels very Dutch).
During the period when I was starting to learn Dutch on various occasions the other person switched to English (probably because my Dutch was really bad or I was having trouble following them) and I just kept on speaking Dutch, and I think I was once or twice told off for trying to say something complex with my really broken Dutch whilst buying something and I was holding the queue, but they simply pointed out I was holding the queue.
Remember when it was called musical.ly and everyone thought it was the cringiest thing ever and wished it would die…. Lol
So TikTok isn't strictly covers with flying text anymore? Jesus I'm out of the loop on this.
Youtube and Instagram tried for years to lure in Tiktok users, and they failed so badly that even with Tiktok potentially getting banned, people would rather switch to a different potentially sketchy Chinese app.
Sketchy Oligargh Billionaire App VS State-Run-Sketchy Party-Official-Billionaires App...
Idk... Sounds like loose loose...
Party official billionaires are much better than sketchy "self made" billionaires.
Party officials owe their fortune and allegiance to the party, and we've seen some high profile cases of billionaires being brought to their heels very quickly.
Capitalist billionaires are the end result of a selection process that chooses the most self serving, greedy, ruthless bastards.
I'll take #1. Fight me.
I take almost any Chinese party official over an American Billionaire. Rich people had their chance to prove capitalism works, it didn't....
China has shown it jails Billionaires, so their Justice system works better than the one in the US.
I can see the logic. If I used these apps I'd rather have a different sketchy government spying on my than my own.
That they specifically went to another sketchy app is what gets me the most.
I could name tons of social network alternatives that are decentralized, give users control but for some reason those are sidelined as everyone suddenly wants an account on app they never heard off a few weeks ago and its main selling feature is that is at least as insecure and censored as tiktok..
They're looking for a "fuck you" to the US government more than they're looking for a new social media. Maybe it will stick as a popular platform, but I suspect it was chosen more for its name and ties to the CCP than any actual features.
