Why are Americans so against speaking multiple languages?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have traveled to many countries and have always been impressed that the citizens in these countries could speak multiple languages fluently. The US is the only place I have ever been that the people are so stupid and think being fluent in multiple languages is a bad thing.

The part you wrote in bold is misinformation.

The fact is: every American child is required to attend school through the 12th grade (or equivalent), and that included a minimum of TWO YEARS (2 years) of foreign language instruction.

If that’s not enough proof of our national commitment to multilingual education, the requirement today is now THREE YEARS.

lol. How much do you think you learn in 3 years? Less than a 3 year old.
How many years of math or English?
I went to school in Germany and had 9 years of English, 7 years of French and 3 years of Russian, where I learned about as much as the average US student learns during their 3 years of fl instruction: very, very little

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Americans are mostly just against education in general.

lol. True.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have traveled to many countries and have always been impressed that the citizens in these countries could speak multiple languages fluently. The US is the only place I have ever been that the people are so stupid and think being fluent in multiple languages is a bad thing.

Bc Americans are idiots.

[Anonymous]

So... in my many travels, most people I come across, at least in the few countries I can sort of speak the language, the people just wanted me to speak English. Because it is the global language. And it is simply for us English speakers the default position, because English is everywhere. So why bother with another language you'll barely end up using?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP is a troll.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have traveled to many countries and have always been impressed that the citizens in these countries could speak multiple languages fluently. The US is the only place I have ever been that the people are so stupid and think being fluent in multiple languages is a bad thing.

The part you wrote in bold is misinformation.

The fact is: every American child is required to attend school through the 12th grade (or equivalent), and that included a minimum of TWO YEARS (2 years) of foreign language instruction.

If that’s not enough proof of our national commitment to multilingual education, the requirement today is now THREE YEARS.

lol. How much do you think you learn in 3 years? Less than a 3 year old.
How many years of math or English?
I went to school in Germany and had 9 years of English, 7 years of French and 3 years of Russian, where I learned about as much as the average US student learns during their 3 years of fl instruction: very, very little

You sound like a really poor student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's funny, I was just saying at work yesterday that seeing as how Trump has renamed the Gulf Of Mexico to the Gulf Of America, it won't be long before he renames our English Language to American Language. That way we'll all be speaking American instead of English.

It would get too confusing. Which Native American language? Navajo, Nahuatl, Quechua? English is a European language.

You think Trump would care about Navajo, Nahuatl, Quechua etc? His MAGA fanbase wouldn't care either.

What about his MAGA base who speak those languages?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP is probably reacting to the common (not universal l American notion that speaking not-English is offensive, especially in USA.
Thee people feel insecure and threatened by their incompetence in the other language, and desperate to retain the privilege they inherited by being born native to the language of the wealthiest culture in the world.

Insecurity is a huge part of it. With some limited exceptions (e.g. ES language immersion) we don’t start language instruction until MS. That’s too late for most unless you are really dedicated to learn. We lived in a European country where kids were learning English starting at kindergarten. As a result, most teens/young adults could speak English pretty well, and often another language too.

I think some in the US feel threatened now because Spanish fluency is desired for a lot of jobs, but again we don’t prioritize teaching native English speakers. So there is this perception that Spanish-speaking immigrants are “stealing” the jobs.

[Anonymous]

Why are you so into making over-generalizations?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have traveled to many countries and have always been impressed that the citizens in these countries could speak multiple languages fluently. The US is the only place I have ever been that the people are so stupid and think being fluent in multiple languages is a bad thing.

America is a huge country. Texas is larger than all European countries except Russia. If I am French and 2 hours away in three different countries, everyone speaks German, Italian, or Spanish then it behooves me to speak these languages.

Whereas 3,000 miles away in California they speak the same language I speak in NY, I have zero need to speak anything other than English.

Yeah... most French people refuse to speak another language. The truly multilingual places are the nordics (high proficiency in English) and Switzerland (where there are multiple official languages).

[Anonymous]

English can be used nearly everywhere

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP is probably reacting to the common (not universal l American notion that speaking not-English is offensive, especially in USA.
Thee people feel insecure and threatened by their incompetence in the other language, and desperate to retain the privilege they inherited by being born native to the language of the wealthiest culture in the world.

Bump