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[deleted] t1_j6m54fk wrote

Reply to comment by gangmasterfader in Biden says no F-16s for Ukraine as Russia claims gains by joshemerson

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[deleted] t1_j6mh1vm wrote

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Grammarnazi_bot t1_j6mwwfa wrote

Approximately only 50% of Ukrainians can speak English, and the Ukrainian army is not composed of professional pilots. It’s best for their national security if things are translated, because a coin flip on whether or not they’ll easily learn things is not exactly a good thing

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IAmAPaidActor t1_j6myrp9 wrote

Snarky response: Less than 50% of Ukrainians are flying F16s 😉

Non-snarky response: Knowing English is a requirement to fly in any meaningful capacity.

https://unitingaviation.com/news/safety/pilot-air-traffic-controller-communication/

The language of the sky is English. Anyone who is being trained to fly a jet will already know it.

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[deleted] t1_j6njjv6 wrote

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lake_titty_caca t1_j6nv1qd wrote

Do you really think there are people who speak English as a second language but can't read the alphabet?

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HumanFuture7 t1_j6p04pt wrote

There are people that speak English natively but are functionally (or literally) illiterate so yes.

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lake_titty_caca t1_j6p0gx3 wrote

People who speak English natively generally have learned it before they learn to read. So it makes sense that there are some who never learn how to read.

People who speak English as a second language are generally not learning it as an infant / toddler, so they are much more likely to be relying on written text as part of their learning process.

Just take the L.

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HumanFuture7 t1_j6p2k81 wrote

> so they are much more likely to be relying on written text as part of their learning process.

More likely =/= guaranteed. Generally when learning a new language you do indeed learn how to read/write it. However that isn't always the case. If you only have conversations with friends that speak a different language how will you learn to write that language? Especially if their alphabet is different from your own.

Here's an example.

It also goes the other way, sometimes people can read/write foreign languages but are unable to speak it.

To say that there are no people that can speak but can't read a second language (in this case, English) is just plainly wrong.

>Just take the L.

Wasn't the initial commenter, no need to be a dick

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TailRudder t1_j6my73b wrote

I guarantee you the pilots speak English regardless of what the general population statistics are.

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McCree114 t1_j6mevmv wrote

Yeah this is what people don't understand. It's not a videogame where Ukrainian pilots can just hop into any aircraft and go. All these Abrams, Bradleys, Patriot systems, etc that we're sending over will require conversions and training/retraining for the crews and maintenance techs.

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