Languages - Or Lack Thereof

[euro_in_america]

Fri Sep 23, 8:19 PM ET
Half of European citizens speak a second language, according to a European Union survey released Friday.

The poll, conducted in June across Europe, found that tiny Luxembourg had the highest percentage of bilingual citizens, with 99 percent of those questioned saying they could master a conversation in a second language.

Comments

[z8z8]

I like in the reality show, "The Amazing Race", when the ugly American's get mad at the indigenous people for not speaking English.
It would be so easy to start young with a bilingual education and follow up throughout high school.
For some reason, your assessment is so correct and it's going to remain this way.
Kind of pathetic.

[euro_in_america]

Yeah, I'm sure for the most part it will. I will say though that I do see a trend right here on LJ that shows that more kids seems to study German, for instance. There are tons of communities on the topic. It's interesting to me as it seems to be a relatively new trend. One thing I will also never understand is why at least 1st generation immigrants don't insist on teaching their kids English AND their native language from the start. It's illogical to me. I
would make it point to raise my kids at least bi-lingual.

[aerodrome1]

As an American, I know in my heart of hearts that all Foreigners actually do speak English, but are just being deliberately difficult.

[jvmatucha]

Ich will einen faul Amerikaner nicht sein! Ich muss viel mehr deutsch machen!

Dann kann ich perfekt deutsch sprechen. Wie Dieter. Wie... Arnold!

Entschuldigung. Ich meine, Ahn-old!

[euro_in_america]

Hah! Du bist eine Ausnahme. :) Aber wie oben schon gesagt, sehe ich schon einen Trend hier in den USA. Es scheint, als ob *mehr*
Leute jetzt Deutsch oder Spanisch oder Franzoesisch lernen in amerikanischen Schulen und auf den Unis. Hat wohl auch etwas mit "Herkunft" zu tun und wie die Eltern der Kids eingestellt sind... zB Bush-Supporter vs. not. ;)

[angelie]

*clap hands* concerning Brits and Americans... ignorant as always... "everybody speaks English anyway".

[euro_in_america]

Yeah, that's the thing. Along with general attitudes.

[oceandrive]

it's not that i dislike americans but with the way they act as if their culture/behavior is the best, they lose so much just because they know english and pop culture is technically american culture.

perhaps that's the advantage most non-english speaking countries have. they have the need and desire to learn english aside from their local language they end up gaining more.

[euro_in_america]

Yeah. If you want to be informed and stay competitive in the world today, you HAVE to know English, period. In my generation in Germany, we started English in 5th grade - I hear the kids now start in 1st or 2nd grade which I think is great. They should do the same here but it will never happen.

How does it work in the Philippines? What languages do you study in school? Are any of them mandatory? I'm curious.

[oceandrive]

I studied in a private school all the way from nursery to my masters and almost everything is in english except for one class in Filipino which is the language's grammar. Depending on the curriculum, we sometimes have Tagalog (the real term for Philippine language) literature.

The curriculum was revised a few years ago to accommodate more Filipino because some studies showed that most Filipinos do not know our own language well enough.

I'm not quite sure about the public school system but the average Filipino can speak, write and understand basic english even if they grew up in the countryside. the streetsigns, newspapers, tv and radio are still mostly in english. Taglish (Tagalog and English) is more prevalent. We even have devised a strange way of conjugating english words the way we conjugate tagalog words.

sorry for the long reply though.

[euro_in_america]

Oh, interesting, I didn't know that. It seems like a good system, short of the danger of native language disappearing to some degree. Long replies are good. ;)

We have a thing called Denglish too in Germany - Deutsch/English - and a lot of people are very annoyed with it by now as it has penetrated all aspects of life there, from everyday speech to commercials, ads, TV, etc. When I still lived there I didn't care, now from afar I find some of it really silly as it seems to have gone too far and I now feel the American influence should be... limited in some way. But that's another topic.

When I see Taglish in your LJ, I simply try to guess. As I've found with any foreign language, a lot can be deducted just by looking at the context. :)

Worse Than Thought

[jgkcmo]

Actually, I'm willing to bet that the picture in the United States is worse than that. Seeing the heavy immigration from Latin America, I wonder what would the percent be for US Citizens whose first language was English? My money says 4 percent, if that.

Re: Worse Than Thought

[euro_in_america]

I agree. It still seems high and so does the British number. 30% in Britain seems impossible to me. That's 1/3. I'm thinking it must be due to first generation immigrants as well, such as Indian, Pakistani, Caribbean and African nationals.