Why are americans so persistent about English language and hate other languages?
A dumb person can learn english, it doesn’t imply intelligence. Secondly, english was invented by britishers.
36-40
ArishMell · 70-79, M
Are they and do they?
Anyone normally does learn the language of the country of his or her birth - and indeed of another country if moving there or visiting it regularly enough. Obviously they can't speak it though if "dumb", i.e. lacking the ability to speakl.
Oh, and Britons, please, not "britishers". Also, the American dialect differs a lot from British English, but does contain elements of 16C English.
Do Americans "hate" other languages? That is a very strong verb. I doubt most "hate" them; not interested in them, more likely. Perhaps they see no need because they cannot or choose not to visit other countries, nor want a career in which the skill is helpful or necessary.
Most Britons learn French as a second language simply because that is set in schools as France is the nearest foreign country, very accessible, with many trading and other links between the two nations, and France has long been very popular among Britons for holidays.
Is there an equivalent for Americans? I would think Spanish, as the main modern languages in Mexio and the South American nations are dialects of Spanish.
Anyone normally does learn the language of the country of his or her birth - and indeed of another country if moving there or visiting it regularly enough. Obviously they can't speak it though if "dumb", i.e. lacking the ability to speakl.
Oh, and Britons, please, not "britishers". Also, the American dialect differs a lot from British English, but does contain elements of 16C English.
Do Americans "hate" other languages? That is a very strong verb. I doubt most "hate" them; not interested in them, more likely. Perhaps they see no need because they cannot or choose not to visit other countries, nor want a career in which the skill is helpful or necessary.
Most Britons learn French as a second language simply because that is set in schools as France is the nearest foreign country, very accessible, with many trading and other links between the two nations, and France has long been very popular among Britons for holidays.
Is there an equivalent for Americans? I would think Spanish, as the main modern languages in Mexio and the South American nations are dialects of Spanish.
FreddieUK · 70-79, M
Some friends of mine were traveling in S America and came across a group of Americans who were convinced that people were speaking in Spanish and pretending not to understand them out of spite. They could not believe that the whole world does not have English as its main language and all these other languages are just for quaint show.
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FreddieUK · 70-79, M
@ArishMell Coincidentally, one of the traveling friends I just mentioned is a cradle Welsh speaker married to a monoglot English speaker and she had a similar in a North Wales pub. She departed with her husband after their meal having given two barrels in Welsh at the men (it was North Waled 20 years ago) for their rude comments about them. Language chauvinism isn't confined to one country.
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
@ArishMell @FreddieUK I hitch hiked with a girl through Wales Easter 1978 and had exactly the same experience (except that we were unable to retort in Welsh!), opened a cafe door and heard English spoken but as soon as they saw we weren't local everyone switched to Welsh. That was somewhere in Snowdonia. As we got further and further south the amount of Welsh we heard decreased until it disappeared altogether in the south.
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@ninalanyon It may be different now, as I think Welsh schools started teaching it since then. All the road signs are bilingual too; but I've never found how you accommodate hundreds of modern technical words in an ancient language that had not been kept up all the time.
There was a tale circulating that a microwave oven is a "poppetee-ping" or something like that, but it's not true. I did know but have forgotten what the Welsh for it really is. I don't think it's more than a Welshified version of the English.
My line manager was from South Wales though I don't know when he moved to England. Possibly when he went to college (I don't think he went to university, as he gained an HND not a Degree.) I did not detect any Welsh accent though, and I think I knew more Welsh words than he did!
My brother lives in Southern Scotland where he met and married a local lass. One day out with them I commented on the dual language on an ambulance near Glasgow.
My sister-in-law replied, "I don't know why they bother. Gaelic has never been spoken much down here in the South of Scotland."
There was a tale circulating that a microwave oven is a "poppetee-ping" or something like that, but it's not true. I did know but have forgotten what the Welsh for it really is. I don't think it's more than a Welshified version of the English.
My line manager was from South Wales though I don't know when he moved to England. Possibly when he went to college (I don't think he went to university, as he gained an HND not a Degree.) I did not detect any Welsh accent though, and I think I knew more Welsh words than he did!
My brother lives in Southern Scotland where he met and married a local lass. One day out with them I commented on the dual language on an ambulance near Glasgow.
My sister-in-law replied, "I don't know why they bother. Gaelic has never been spoken much down here in the South of Scotland."
supersnipe · 61-69, M
JimboSaturn · 56-60, M