Sometimes, I truly hate the French!!

[Mikey]

I think if everyone spoke the same language there would be less wars, less prejudice and less injustice in the world.

A "foreign language" is quaint to hear when it's your country that's on top of the world ... But, looking at it from the other side, it's a different matter.

[rche]

By the way, my comment above.

I didn't mean it sound like an "ugly American" snide comment.

It just seems English is the language spoken by most of the heavy hitter countries in this world, so it can only be a plus to speak it too.

Heavy hitters?
Do you mean the Chinese, Japanese, Germans, Russians..... etc. ?
I think the heavy hitters are intelligent enough to figure out other languages (and not just English) in order to hit.

American = monolingual ; a sad stereotype.

[Mikey]

Heavy hitters?
Do you mean the Chinese, Japanese, Germans, Russians..... etc. ?
I think the heavy hitters are intelligent enough to figure out other languages (and not just English) in order to hit.

American = monolingual ; a sad stereotype.

I can't imagine any Euopean's that's not German wanting to speak German as their main language.

[fallensaviour]

It's a pain,I remember being forced to learn french in school It sucked.
I am not going to Quebec anytime soon,I assure you that.
So I move to WPG,MB as an adult and guess what?
Half the city is FRENCH!!!
It's a good thing I got some french in school...

Now the biggest things to p!ss me off are,one we are to have things in french and english in all the stores however in the french part of town they can have french only?
What the hell is that about?

[BlackKnight]

It's a pain,I remember being forced to learn french in school It sucked.

French, Canadian,.. Whats the Difference.

[palitoy]

French, Canadian,.. Whats the Difference.

Big difference! I live it everyday.

[Gorn Captain]

It totally amazes me that people choose to ignore half of their own country.
I mean, isn't that a part of who you are?
We have one stretch of beach in Belgium, in our part of the country.
When Walloons come over, most expect to be addressed in French by shop owners, waiters, etc. Which we, the docile Flemish, actually do.

Hey, when I go to "the other side", I fully expect to have to speak French. It's logical.
There's a lot of talk of splitting up Belgium.
Sometimes, I fully understand that.

I'm still thinking of getting my own country, though.
How does "The Kingdom of Rikystan" sound?
You're all invited, I can always use some Dukes and Princes.....

[Adam West]

I actually wish as Americans we would have been exposed to more foreign languages in school.

I did take French for 4 years and still know just barely enough to sound semi knowledgeable.

My 14 year old is now taking Spanish which I think is really good and hope he sticks with it.

They are now offering Chinese in High School which is a language that definitely wouldn't hurt to learn. Even though English is becoming the default language; it definitely doesn't hurt to know a few prominent languages.

[Bill]

I took Spanish and French as mini-courses in middle school, then two years of German in high school but never actually used it.
My wife has been taking Spanish courses at the local community college in small doses over the past two years and has managed to learn enough and use enough to get us across the border from Honduras to Guatemala without a guide, I was so proud of her. She is embarrassing me into learning Spanish now because she is my "handler" whenever we go on vacation. Living in Florida it also makes sense to know my way around the worksite with enough Spanish to convey the basic message of what I need.
Foreign language before middle school would have been of great benefit to me. My friend's daughter knows at least four languages and she's only nine! They're not Americans of course.

[Hector]

Heavy hitters?
Do you mean the Chinese, Japanese, Germans, Russians..... etc. ?
I think the heavy hitters are intelligent enough to figure out other languages (and not just English) in order to hit.

American = monolingual ; a sad stereotype.

Touché.

[cjefferys]

We had to take French from grades 5-8, after that it was optional and I opted out. Now I really regret that and wish I took it throughout high school. I definitely think that knowing more than one language makes you a more rounded person. I'm still struggling to learn Japanese because of my wife and her family, it's hard going though. My son on the other hand is learning both English and Japanese from my wife and I and it's amazing how easily they pick up languages at that age. He can already effortlessly switch from one language to the other, depending on who he's talking to. It's like he doesn't even have to think about it.

[Hector]

My sister is a professional interpreter and translator who speaks English, Spanish, French (she also lived in France for a few years), Portuguese, Italian (she stayed in Venice for a year), and some German, and a little bit of Japanese...and now she's learning Farsi/Persian (because of her friend)...she's a walking C-3PO, lol.

Take that, you monolingual people.

[theantiquetiger]

Next thing you know, they will try and make everything metric!!!

For all you 40+ year olds in USA. Remember in the 70's, being force fed the metric system, telling us the standard system was dying and never coming back?

Now granted, I use the metric system more than the standard system because of my job, and the metric system is so easy to learn.

[Evel KMego]

Americans need to get our heads out of our rears. We are so egocentric. The world is so tied together now. We think everyone should learn our ways.It's sad. I work for a large Japanese company( Oh what a feeling) and I've trained with a lot of Japanese. They bend over backwards to learn our language and hardly any of our employees try to learn theirs. I've picked up enough to get by, but need to learn more.

[theantiquetiger]

Americans need to get our heads out of our rears. We are so egocentric. The world is so tied together now. We think everyone should learn our ways.It's sad. I work for a large Japanese company( Oh what a feeling) and I've trained with a lot of Japanese. They bend over backwards to learn our language and hardly any of our employees try to learn theirs. I've picked up enough to get by, but need to learn more.

I wouldn't say we are egocentric. We live in some states that are bigger thn most EU countries. Unless you are in international business, live near the southern border, etc, there was never any reason to learn another language.

In EU, you may live just a few hundred miles (sorry, kilometers) from two or three groups of people with two or three different languages other than your mother tongue. There is a major language barrier in EU (or would be if people didn't learn two or three different languages.

It doesn't matter now anyway, WWW is the universal language (thanks Al Gore)