> Since 1960, the world has lost hundreds of languages — and gained thousands.

I'm currently learning Kiche, a Mayan language from Guatemala. My whole life I've lived in the Americas, but only hearing European languages: Portuguese in Brazil, French in Haiti, English in the USA, and Spanish almost everywhere else. For the first time in my life I'm in a place where most conversations happen in an actual American language and it's pretty incredible. But it also makes me a bit sad. What if America had kept it's linguistic and cultural diversity like Europe and Asia got to? Even Africa came out less homogeneously Europeanized.

But no sense in crying over what could've been. I'm grateful that at least a smidgen survives.