Why Americans feel no compulsion to learn foreign languages

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 4:27 AM 3/27/96, Herb Sutter wrote:

>If you'll excuse a European joke: "Q: What does a European call someone who
>speaks four languages?  A: Gifted.  Q: Three languages?  A: Bright.  Q: Two
>languages?  A: Normal.  Q: One language?  A: American." :-)  (No, this isn't
>a snub, it's just meant in good humour; it applies to a lot of us Canucks
>too even though we do have two official languages.  Heck, I apply it to
>myself; my French is rusty, I haven't used it in over 12 years.)

A girlfriend of mine was born in Denmark and spoke four languages (Danish,
English, German, and French) before immigrating here at the age of 19.
Danish was of course her native language, English is taught in all
countries of Europe as a _lingua franca_ (ironically), German because the
Danes have the Germans as neighbors, and French as her "elective."

For Europeans, knowing the language of one's immediate neighbors (probably
only a hundred kilometers away), and knowing English, accounts for much of
their language facility.

Americans are typically thousands of miles away from those speaking
Japanese, Mandarin, Tagalog, Polish, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Hindi,
Talegu, and the hundreds of other languages. It is not at all clear what
language Americans should pick as a "second language" to study.

(Myself, I studied some German in high school, largely because in the 60s
this is what science folks were expected to take. Artsy craftsy folks took
French, and the slackers took Spanish. The real wonks took Latin, mainly to
help them on their verbal SATs. Russian was offered as a trendy addition,
later replaced by Mandarin and Japanese, the supposedly "essential business
languages of the future," which have turned out not to be essential at
all.)

Europeans who look down on Americans for not studying the language of their
neigbors simply aren't familiar with a map. The one language that a
neighbor of ours differs on is Spanish, and this language is, for various
reasons, useful mainly in infrequent vacations in Mexico, for speaking to
gardeners and maids, and for giving instructions to day laborers and
factory workers. Inasmuch as all Mexican hotels and restaurants understand
English, and inasmuch as not many Americans travel to Mexico for other than
vacations by the sea, etc., things become clearer.

There is not a single foreign language I can think of it that would help me
in my goals or help anyone I know. This is the reality of a world dominated
by English-speaking persons and in which all technical people learn
English.

--Tim May


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