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Americans aren’t so bad at languages | ||
Tags: Using Foreign Languages | United States | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4622 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 1 of 34 11 January 2013 at 1:16am | IP Logged | ||
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It's a poplar cliche that Americans aren't interested in foreign languages and expect everyone to speak and
understand English. However, on my many visits to Germany I've come across plenty Americans who live in Germany and have a more than adequate command of the language, some have been completely fluent. I know that monolingualism is rife in the States, but I don't criticise that since the country is so vast and English is already the global language. But it seems to me that those who venture to other shores aren't as linguistically ignorant as some people make out. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5262 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 2 of 34 11 January 2013 at 2:23am | IP Logged | ||
Some are, some aren't. It's as simple as that. Are there Americans who live abroad and never learn the language, yes indeed, many. Are there Americans who live abroad and do learn the local language, sure a lot. The ones who don't are the ones who get more notice. I always think that it is dangerous to generalize about people. For every monolingual American abroad, I can point to many others who manage to speak the local language, who need to speak the language, and who speak it even though they don't have to do so in order to live and work effectively. It depends on the individuals. It depends upon their motivation and how much of an ex-pat/English bubble with which they surround themselves. We who speak and learn languages know how much monolinguals are missing. What a shame to waste such a golden opportunity. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Helemano Newbie Japan Joined 4340 days ago 31 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 3 of 34 11 January 2013 at 2:49am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm American, and from a young age I've always wanted to learn other languages. I have a lot of American friends who have, or are interested in, learning languages.
On the other hand, I have family members who don't understand why I have an interest in learning any foreign language. Hell, many of my family members see no point in leaving the United States for any reason, even traveling. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zerrubabbel Senior Member United States Joined 4600 days ago 232 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Mandarin | Message 4 of 34 11 January 2013 at 5:37am | IP Logged | ||
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I think the cranky attitude of "why bother learning _____" is a loud one, and very common within the states... but the
ones who venture go off, and they become as fluent as anyone else ^.^ [thinking of someone in particular who I learned a lot from] 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tennisfan Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5360 days ago 130 posts - 247 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: German | Message 5 of 34 11 January 2013 at 6:57am | IP Logged | ||
"Why bother learning x-language" is a "cranky attitude"? I really can't stand commentary like this and as an American it's quite frankly incredibly annoying. I've traveled to many places in the world, and (gasp!) there are billions of people outside of the US who only speak one language. The horror! Language learning takes time, effort, and yes, in some cases, it absolutely is not worth it for some people. If you manage a farm in Iowa and it takes up your entire day, and you have a family to feed, a business to run that is 99% local, then what purpose does it have to you to learn French? none at all! It doesn't mean you might not want to do it purely for the pleasure, but how could you honestly argue that French is essential to someone in that position? On the other hand, I've also met many people who have immigrated to the States who after years of residing here have little to no proficiency in English. You could argue quite easily that they would have a "purpose" in learning English, and yet they don't. I don't hear anyone making stereotypes about them. If you live in the rural America it's unlikely you'll hear foreign languages being spoken with regularity. But it's also similarly unlikely that you'll hear many foreign languages spoken in a rural town in Mexico. But who is saying "oh, those Mexicans who refuse to learn any other languages...." No one. So why pick on Americans? if you live in Switzerland, you might hear 4-5 languages on a daily basis, depending on where you live. That's great! But not everyone has that opportunity. If something isn't useful to you, it doesn't mean you have a "cranky" attitude towards it. I have a friend who speaks to very near a C1 level German, Italian, French and Spanish, in addition to his native Croatian. He does so because he has to travel for work and simply has no other choice. He's not any more or less intelligent than most people I know. To him, languages are a tool, nothing more, nothing less. There is a purpose for him to know them---for the farmer in Iowa there isn't. You could make an argument that knowledge of languages is a wonderful way to access other cultures, but some people merely don't want to or have the need to do so. Many people travel all around the world with a knowledge of only a few survival phrases, if that. But you can't create a waterproof argument to suggest that being multilingual adds with 100% certainty to your happiness. I know a lot of people who, despite speaking multiple languages, aren't happy. A good friend of mine is having serious problems in his marriage, with a woman whose native language is the same as his. His knowledge of 3 languages doesn't help their situation a damn bit. "My wife is leaving me, but I know Italian, so it's okay!" I speak a few languages and take great joy in studying and trying to improve proficiency. That's something I enjoy. A lot of people don't. It is what it is. I really can't stand people who feign some kind of haughty superiority for the fact that they "speak" a language (I'd love to know your CEFR levels, by the way, I'm sure you speak every language you study at C2, right?), and mock people who don't learn languages, despite doing so being totally irrelevant to their daily life. Just do what you do, enjoy what you enjoy, and let others do the same. We like learning languages. A lot of people don't. It is what it is. 14 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Helemano Newbie Japan Joined 4340 days ago 31 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 6 of 34 11 January 2013 at 7:29am | IP Logged | ||
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tennisfan, your points are right on the money. If you don't want to learn another language, and/or you don't need to, there's no shame in not doing so.
I think the point the OP was trying to make is that Americans have an unfair reputation for not learning a second language, when that is no different from any other nation in that situation (big, somewhat isolated). There are many Americans who don't learn languages (some don't need to), but there are a lot that do. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Astrophel Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5732 days ago 157 posts - 345 votes Speaks: English*, Latin, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Cantonese, Polish, Sanskrit, Cherokee | Message 7 of 34 11 January 2013 at 8:26am | IP Logged | ||
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I think the reason people single out Americans is because as tourists abroad, they are disproportionately
likely to expect everyone to speak English, get angry when they don't, and make no effort to learn even a few phrases of the native language. Obviously that doesn't mean ALL OF THEM, but they are disproportionately likely to do so. As an American, though, I can say I've seen a disproportionate number of French people do the same here :D 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4889 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 8 of 34 11 January 2013 at 9:50am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm convinced that a lot of Americans want to learn languages, and respect those that
do. I think we fail at the actual act of teaching and learning languages. In high school and college I treated languages like any other topic: one that I could ignore for awhile, and cram hard when I needed to. I didn't bother with the language labs, and I ignored my professor's when they told us that we needed to study every day. My Latin teacher in High School even told us that we had to sleep with our Latin books. We laughed, but didn't do it. And I was a good student! That style of lots of leisure time and weekends of hard cramming worked for everything else, but I struggled with and barely passed my language courses. It wasn't until I moved overseas, to an island where no one spoke English, that I finally figured out how to learn. I have so many friends who think they don't have a talent for languages, based upon the time they bought Rosetta Stone before a cruise, or a Berlitz tape for their car, when in fact they still don't really get that learning a language takes daily study over a couple years. But at the end of the day, almost everyone I know has tried to learn a language as an adult. They just didn't go about it right (and they ignore me when I send them to HTLAL). edit: I just googled some numbers. 25.6% of the people in Hawai`i are bilingual. California blows us away, though: 42.6% are bilingual. Edited by kanewai on 11 January 2013 at 9:56am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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