English as lingua franca
Learning a foreign language a ‘must’ in Europe, not so in America
A popular stereotype of Americans traveling abroad is the tourist who is at a loss when it comes to coping with any language other than English. Fair or not, the fact is that while the U.S. does not have a national requirement for students to learn a foreign language in school, the typical European pupil must study multiple languages in the classroom before becoming a teen.
Perhaps because of these varying standards, few Americans who claim to speak a non-English language say that they acquired those skills in school. Only 25% of American adults self-report speaking a language other than English, according to the 2006 General Social Survey. Of those who know a second language, 43% said they can speak that language “very well.” Within this subset of multilinguals who are well-versed in a non-English language, 89% acquired these skills in the childhood home, compared with 7% citing school as their main setting for language acquisition.
Enzo Zappone 5 months ago
I am Italian and have an American friend who lives and works here for some years. She teaches English in an American base but she doesnt speak any italian just because “she doesnt have time “. This is sad and not respectful for the country she lives in. Or in Firenze an American couple asked me information about places just speaking in English in american fast accent! ! So not easy for me. …
Mac Hayes 6 months ago
The need for knowing second languages in Europe is obvious: if you travel much more than 100 miles (161 km) in any direction you will find a different language, or two or three. In North America you can travel thousands of miles without needing to know other than English or Spanish.
mach37 6 months ago
A bit of attention to geography and history should explain why North Americans care so little about learning a second language: they don’t need to know a second language. Thanks to the British Empire large swaths of the post-18th Century world were familiar with English. Thanks to the Atlantic Ocean and little international air travel until 75 years ago, Americans rarely had need of knowing another language, by which time English had become the de facto world-wide “lingua franca.” I’ll leave it to another commenter to explain why Spanish is also so widely spoken.
謂学不暇者、雖暇亦不能学 淮南子
学ぶ暇あらずと謂う者は暇ありと雖も亦学ぶ能わず
古代中国人も現代アメリカ人も（きっと日本人も）言う人は言ってるようですねー、このフレーズ。
English had become the de facto world-wide “lingua franca.”
英語は単なる外国語ではないようです。