|
 |
Americans aren’t so bad at languages | ||
Tags: Using Foreign Languages | United States | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4358 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes  Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 9 of 34 11 January 2013 at 10:06am | IP Logged | ||
|
Stereotypes are a very bad thing. Once there is a bad reputation about your nationality, you find your self trying to prove that you are not an elephant!
I get to meet all nationalities during the summer months, and I don't see a larger percentage of american ignorance. Then again we speak English to them, but they do make some effort to learn greek words. They ask, they try... Some other nationalities can only communicate through English, but their English is so bad sometimes, you can't really talk about knowledge of the language. Not to mention a certain degree of arrogance (by some more than others, and I am not naming names!), which americans don't seem to have. In fact they are very respectful. You know, I have often asked myself, if greek was still a lingua franca, would I have bothered learning a foreign language, or would I have been looking down upon the poor foreigners who spoke my language with an accent? I'd like to think that I'd learn, but one never knows. Language learning is not a value per se. If it's not coupled with respect for other cultures and other human beings, it's nothing, in my opinion. Edited by renaissancemedi on 11 January 2013 at 10:10am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| stifa Triglot Senior Member Norway lang-8.com/448715 Joined 4873 days ago 629 posts - 813 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, EnglishC2, German Studies: Japanese, Spanish | Message 10 of 34 11 January 2013 at 10:18am | IP Logged | ||
Is that based on Americans alone, or do they count all the foreigners living in those places? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TobaccoSmoke Newbie England Joined 4374 days ago 16 posts - 21 votes | Message 11 of 34 11 January 2013 at 12:42pm | IP Logged | ||
|
In reality I think Americans are better at languages than British people.
It is quite common to come across Americans who have at least a decent grasp of a second language, whereas it's extremely rare to come across a British person who can speak a second language. There are hundreds of thousands of British people living in Spain and France who don't speak anything beyond the most basic language. Edited by TobaccoSmoke on 11 January 2013 at 12:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5056 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 12 of 34 11 January 2013 at 1:08pm | IP Logged | ||
|
They do not need foreign languages much, so they don't know them well.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TobaccoSmoke Newbie England Joined 4374 days ago 16 posts - 21 votes | Message 13 of 34 11 January 2013 at 1:28pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I don't see why foreign languages would be any less useful in the UK than they are in the US.
The UK has plenty of sizable immigrant communities, and its close proximity to France and Germany would make knowing a second language, preferably French or German, quite useful in my opinion. I think the reason for British people not speaking second languages is the lack of will to learn rather than the lack of use. There are plenty of opportunities to speak a second language in the UK, especially Polish, of which up to 800,000 native speakers live in the UK. I can understand why a lot of Japanese people are monoglots. There are virtually no immigrants in Japan, everywhere you go, everyone speaks fluent Japanese natively. However, this simply is not the case in the UK, the UK is definitely not another Japan. Edited by TobaccoSmoke on 11 January 2013 at 1:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chris Ford Groupie United States Joined 4743 days ago 65 posts - 101 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese | Message 14 of 34 11 January 2013 at 2:56pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I actually think we do pretty well, considering the prevalence of English around the world and our relative isolation (linguistically speaking). I think that, to some extent, this isolation creates a mystique around other languages and cultures that can lead some of us to devote a lot of effort to learning a language that is not immediately useful in any way. Compare this to say, British monolinguals - with the whole of Europe being comparatively at their doorstep learning another European language isn't quite as exotic as it would be in the US.
However, like tennisfan said earlier, I really can't fault Americans who don't learn other languages, as in most of the country it's not the most practical use of time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5100 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German | Message 15 of 34 11 January 2013 at 4:20pm | IP Logged | ||
|
There's a part of me that wants the stereotype to continue. It makes American's think I'm special and it makes Europeans think I'm unique (in my limited experience). But that is, of course, a bit selfish. Edited by Darklight1216 on 11 January 2013 at 4:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 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 16 of 34 11 January 2013 at 4:29pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I read somewhere that only 10% of Americans have a passport. I'm not sure how reliable that statistic is but I would never criticise an American citizen for not looking beyond the borders of the USA. It is a vast land mass and you can travel 3000 miles and STILL be in America. And if you head into the equally-vast Canada they speak English there as well. Besides, I've never been out of Europe. Edited by beano on 11 January 2013 at 4:30pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
