Artists and scientists have famously been prosecuted for different communication.
But at the same time, communication gaps also resulted in millions of deaths.
Unifying language/culture/etc enables the "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." Europe knows this (see formulation of the EU). Asia knows this (China's camps, Japan&Korea's immigration policies).
Its not this or that.
Europe meanwhile, in case you are unaware, is all about unity through culture, but the EU does this by celebrating its diversity (as well as actively protecting minority languages), not by Gleichschaltung.
Why such an adverse reaction? Nothing about what they said seems abhorrent! It's a common/usual positive sentiment, like "Understanding things give life meaning", etc.
Moreover as other examples here given, geopolitical tensions very often appear between neighbours who have a very similar culture, so sharing cultural similarities does not seem to lead to much of peace in the world.
Cultures are not that weak, or done away with that easily.
Some of the tools and dictionaries used for Viet-English are wonky, and depending on when they were educated the English teachers were either unqualified backpackers or some grifter who opened an English tutoring center (oftentimes one and the same).
And coming from a language with little overlap with Indo-European languages and roots makes it a very alien experience (and the same in reverse as well).
California
> It doesn't mean we can't get along or have a peaceful world full of diversity in language and culture. We just need to get better at nuance and understanding
Wasn't making a judgement about that. I was just pointing out a somewhat common mistake and pattern I've noticed Vietnamese ESLers make.
Your reaction seemed very intense and polarizing for what sounded like a funny anecdote of a date gone wrong.
My SO had a similar reaction when she confused "common law marriage" and "civil law marriage" years ago.
There's basically no real complete English/Viet dictionary anyways, the best ones are 90% there.
LLMs here are the best experience
This confusion has resulted in Vietnamese people unintentionally describing incest or gay relationships.
[0] - What she actually meant was "brother" in the sense that he is a family friend and neighbor.
It's a miserable experience for translation software.