Bashir Salamati wrote:
In article , alexy says...


How does one spell "monolingual"?

A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N



I speak Arabic, Farsi, and English. I can get by in German, Dutch, and Hindi.
I struggle with Spanish and Japanese, and speak just enough Russian to order
food and find the bathroom.

I've traveled all over the world, including China, Japan, many countries in
sub-Saharan Africa and Brazil. The only place I ever had trouble with language
was France, especially Paris. They were looking for an excuse to not talk to
me.

When there's another country, speaking another language, 50 miles away from you,
it's reasonable to learn it. In Europe you can't drive more than a few hours in
any direction without needing another language. In America, you can drive for
days and still be in the same state. Americans don't learn another language
because they don't need to. Honestly, if most Americans become fluent in German
or French they forget the vocabulary because they never have a chance to
practice. There's no reason they should, other than as a curiosity.

The French should just remember that they were on the wrong side in WW2, and
stop being so full of themselves.

Bashir Salamati
Proud American since 1995

Actually - they just call it English. Like in our part of the world where there
are 11 official languages in one country and the default one is English. Anyone
who claims that Kentucky is English is mildly delusional.
Unfortunately you need a LOT of experience to decipher our versions... A little
like the difference between Cockney and Manchester. The English certainly don't
speak English that uniformly either

As for Paris, my experience is to try French, when that fails because the
Parisian objects to your massacre of their rather beautiful language, revert to
Afrikaans. 30 seconds later the average Frenchman is prepared to attempt English.