The real question is, why do the writers treat language like an on-off switch, when it's not? English is available all over the place, on cable, on newsstands, etc. I can see as how someone who doesn't have an interest in international business wouldn't bother to take lessons, but I bet most affluent, educated people in foreign countries, especially foreign countries that still have US military bases on them, could mumble out a couple of English words and phrases.

(Conversely, now she's been revealed, Sun will turn out to speak perfect English, with minimal accent, no vocab deficits, and never fumble the verb "to be".)

For that matter, I've never taken a Chinese lesson in my life, but I can guess at a couple of basic words, based solely on movies I have seen -- and Chinese isn't exacty the language of cultural imperialism.

You don't have to "speak the language" to have a basic awareness of the language, the way that you don't have to be a baseball fan to say a guy struck out, or got caught looking.

I can see as how someone who doesn't have an interest in international business wouldn't bother to take lessons, but I bet most affluent, educated people in foreign countries, especially foreign countries that still have US military bases on them, could mumble out a couple of English words and phrases.

Even when that's going against Jessica's (and mine, to be honest) experience?

It depends on the person. My SiL lived in Luxembourg for 4 years and didn't learn a word of the language. Not "how much" not "soap," nothing. She limped along on some French phrases and pointing a lot. Luxembourgois (sp?) is not an easy language, but my brother managed to pick some up--it was spoken all around them every day, but she just didn't have an ear or an interest.

the way that you don't have to be a baseball fan to say a guy struck out, or got caught looking.

I, for one, have no idea what either of these means. I find it pretty believable that Sun didn't speak English. From what we've seen, her father was over-protective, and not giving her opportunities like that would be another means of maintaining control over her.

Heh -- maybe Jin just hasn't had the opportunity to use "courtesy patrol" in a conversation.

The only English-language television I watched there was available through AFN (Armed Forces Network), which you can only get if you're living on the military base. American television programs on Korean channels are largely dubbed. Movies are generally released in English for a couple of weeks in very limited release, and then go wide dubbed into Korean. It would certainly possible to pick up some English from the media, but English is far less pervasive in Korea than in, say, India.

the way that you don't have to be a baseball fan to say a guy...got caught looking.

Getting "caught looking" is a baseball phrase? I had no idea. I'm not a baseball fan at all but I've been to games and it's been around me, culturally speaking, all my life.

Jars, I think the reason you don't know those phrases is that I don't think they play baseball at all in Ireland. But I bet most Americans recognize those phrases, and a lot of people use them all the time, without thinking of the original context of those phrases as sports terminology.

(Ha! X-post that proves my point!)

Similarly, English-speakers may say things like chibi-Cokes and Jenny-chan, or ciao, or quelle horreur!, or gesundheit, without thinking about it -- but in each case, they're adopting foreign words into their vocabularies. Some people may not do that at all, as in Robin's example, but I bet most people do. To imply that Jin is totally ignorant of English (or that Sun was, before her lessons) is to say that they never heard of, like, Elvis.

My father is a native Russian speaker and his parents preferred to speak it at home, so I heard it all the time growing up. Not only that, I was taught specific phrases (greetings at Easter, that sort of thing). I still managed to never pick any up.

But is that kind of cultural osmosis helpful for conversational speaking? I mean, I've seen enough Chinese movies that there are familiar-sounding words, but I still couldn't ask someone their name, or how to get to the airport. (I could tell them to go fuck themselves, but that's more a side-effect of having a husband and brother-in-law who spent their teenagehoods in Hong Kong.)

Similarly, English-speakers may say things like chibi-Cokes and Jenny-chan, or ciao, or quelle horreur!, or gesundheit, without thinking about it -- but in each case, they're adopting foreign words into their vocabularies.

Ok, but not particularly useful words in this context. The fact that I have a handful of Russian words I can call up to add color to an english sentence would help me communicate not at all if I were stranded on an island with people who spoke only Russian and had absolutely no English.