This isn't true of anyone I've ever known, and i believe it isn't true for the majority of Americans. I believe it's a loudly vocal minority who get angry at people speaking other languages or barely speaking English
this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024
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I disagree with this and its my experience that there are assholes speaking every language and that the English speaking world tends to be the most understanding when it comes to second language speakers using improper words and/or grammar.
Personally, and anecdotally, I've found English speakers to be quite forgiving of poor English — that is, they usually make an effort to try and understand someone with broken English, and they don't usually point out poor grammar (though, that could be because the majority of English speakers don't have the best grammar to begin with 😉). Especially when one compares them with some other cultures, eg the French.
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It's pretty hard to learn another language as an American unless you're able to travel to a place where that is used. I wasn't even allowed to take a foreign language class when I was in high school because I scored too poorly on English in grade school (from not doing homework, not because of aptitude). I haven't really had a need for it in my adult life either other than like 3 times where I had Spanish speaking customers when I worked at in retail and we still managed to overcome the language barrier.
I don't get the downvotes here. Learning a language is not easy without immersion. Yes you can bang through literature and even multiple courses... but without frequent use our brains simply lose the connection. Neurons that fire together wire together. This goes doubly for speech.
Many Americans (most?) are taught a second language in school but the lack of places to use it sees this education go to waste. The US is a large country with pockets of ethnic groups throughout - but as far as immersion with another language goes... it is sorely lacking.
It's unfortunate but a reality.
It's a lot about motivation. I'm sure many people have tried to learn a language, maybe on Duolingo or somewhere else. But as the initial excitement wears off, they give up. And that's normal, that's how most of us are built. You can't beat brain chemistry with sweet arguments that "it's good to know another language." There needs to be a strong incentive from the outside, like school when the second language is mandatory, or life in another country with no access to a community that speaks your language. With the internet, that's nearly impossible nowadays. There are a lot of expats who never assimilate in countries like Germany because in places like Berlin English will do. So I totally understand people from the US, who have limited access to other languages and cultures, plus whenever they go people speak English.
The internet argument goes both ways however: you can never leave your house and be able to interact with people from virtually anywhere, as well as consume content in any language.
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Yeah... this is incredibly dated.
I went to high school 20 years ago and it was mandatory to take at least 2 years of another language. My school was extra so they have 4 years available of Spanish/French/German/Japanese/Mandarin. That wasn't case at every school in our district but they all had Spanish and French.
This was public school.
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I did it in school in rural Ohio before the internet and with very few resources available. Basically anyone can do it. You don't need immersion. Is it helpful? Yes. Is it necessary? No. Look at how many people live 40+ years in a country and never learn the language; immersion alone does almost nothing.
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It’s pretty hard to learn another language as an American unless you’re able to travel to a place where that is used
you can always learn Spanish... with over 10% of the population in America already speaking it, it should not be hard to find someone to practice or some content catered to them to practice with
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Any of the big languages should have a multitude of free online courses available and places to talk to native speakers. These days anyone who wants to learn a second language has the means to do it. It's difficult, but it's accessible.
This feels like French propaganda to deflect from how rude they tend to be if you don't speak French
I speak French until they have enough of me butchering their language with my Jersey (New) accent. Bon Joor, je voo le pan. They beg me to stop and I keep going. Jaim vo d-nay. Mare C bo coo. They thank me for leaving.
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Even if you speak French or at least try to they go like: huh?!
Lean into it. Channel your inner Peggy Hill and repeat this phrase: Jay parlay fran-says tray bee-in. Jay-tude on lay-cole quart ons.
They will beg you to switch back to English
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I'm an American who speaks decent German. I've gotten this flak traveling in non-German speaking Europe - Stupid American only speaking English attitude thrown my way. Mother fucker I'm in France, a German would also be using English here. To some people the only way to not be "that American" is to speak all the languages.
On the flip side, I've had a few Germans ask me why I bothered learning their language when I could just use English.
Moin Brudi, finde ich ziemlich nett von dir das du dir unsere Sprache antust.
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To be fair, 95% of people on that continent speak one or more of three languages. And those three languages (English, Spanish, French) are among the most widely spoken languages in the world.
This is nonsense. Only English teachers do this.
You mean the french?
MAAAAAAAHAAAA THE FRENCH
In my experience Americans find it cool when they hear another language, Anglo-Canadians though, they don't realize how racist they are towards French-Canadians and hate their language with a passion.
French-Canadians, on the other hand, fully realize how racist they are towards Anglo-Canadians and hate their language with a passion.
They do that by bending backwards and talking English whenever there's an Anglophone present no matter if they're the only one in a group of ten that doesn't speak French fluently 👍
They do that by having the biggest college and university in Quebec be English ones (the latter being the third richest in Canada) 👍
They do that by being more bilingual 👍
They do that by never having prevented them from learning their language in school contrary to what happened to French Canadians outside Quebec 👍
Fucking French Canadians and their hate for the english language! Truly they're bigots all of them!
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Reminds me of a joke that you hear a lot in Europe:
What do you call someone who can speak many languages? Polyglottal.
What do you call someone who can speak two languages? Bilingual.
What do you call someone who speaks one language? English.
Non-native English speakers are still often better at English than native English speakers that choose to write like they are illiterate.
Americans when someone doesn't speak English good enough: "They're English is bad!!!"
Homie I cant afford to get mad at bad english. I live in LA. I'm lucky if they speak English at all.
well, I think enough people from Latin America have immigrated that they have now skewed that metric... I read somewhere that, basically any other country with such a large population of bilingual individuals, declared the second language official
That'll never happen in Murica of course
That is because the US does not have an official language at the federal level. Some states do though, and some only English is the official language but some do recognize Spanish and native American languages as official languages. Of course it would be nice to have a more formal approach but I was very surprised of how much stuff is written in more than one language and for Spanish in specific I think you have a very high chance of finding some employee that speaks it or they try to translate. At least in the couple of places that I have being which I admit is a small sample size
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The US has an insane portion of foreign workforce with non-native speakers being at the head of many fortune top 100 companies. This is unheard of for Europe.
US is probably the most linguistically and culturally accommodating place on the planet. The heck are you talking about, OP?
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I wonder if some English natives couldn't believe as kids that the entire damn world just happens to speak their language
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