Why are people lazy to learn another language?

Question

Why are people lazy to learn another language as long as few of them know 2, 3 or more languages ? In America (From North to South), they are lazy but in Europe they learn and speak two or more of them. Why this happens?

Answer 1

It's not because of laziness. It's my theory only but the more grammatically complicated your native language is, the easier you learn other languages. English is grammatically not that complicated (it's the diff between spelling and pronunciation that can crack one up), and I've met only a few English-speaking people who could learn another language perfectly. Germans could learn easier, b/c their language is more complex. The person who speaks the most languages acc. to the Guinness Records is a Lebanese guy, speaking over 55 languages, and Arabic (his native) is commonly regarded as very difficult. The Wikipedia list of polyglots lists several Hungarians who spoke at least 16 languages, and Hungarian is another language regarded as grammatically complicated.

Another reason is that the majority of European languages are very closely related -- if a Spanish person says she speaks Italian, she is regarded as bilingual, even though those two languages are really close to each other. Same about German & Dutch, Czech & Slovak & Polish, Finnish & Estonian, and so on.

Also, English-speaking people don't really need to learn another language if they don't want to, especially Americans because there aren't many other countries nearby to the average American town. Also, English is spoken by lots of people everywhere (by more or less people, depending on the place, but in large cities and the major touristical regions it's widespread). And an estimated 60% of all websites are in English.

Answer 2

Because people are sometimes very self-centered. They think that America is THE country in the world, and that as long as you speak English, you can do everything. Although it does help, nothing teaches you about people and culture, and even your own language, as much as learning a foreign language. And the more you learn, the easier it is!

I am not saying everyone in North America feels like this, but those who refuse to learn another language do.

Answer 3

I agree with Pain 23, distance is a key factor in order to practice a language. I've been living in Argentina, where people were trying to learn mostly English and others also French during their elementary and high school. More than 10 years trying to learn English and not able to say a word because to talk English they need to take a flight of minimum 9 hours to the US or 12 to GB.
No matter how hard a foreign language is learned, if no practiced then is only passively used - let's say people can understand better than expressing-
Now that I live in Europe, and I already studied the local language, as soon as recognized as foreigner, people starts talking to me in English, I answer in the local language, but at the end, I hardly can practice the language from the country where I obtained the nationality.
It is not that easy...and besides not necessary at all for everybody. The more the world gets open to business; the language that everybody uses is English, another very understandable reason why American and British don't have a real need in learning another language.
French people may talk very well other languages, but if you go to France, they will only understand French. This happens in other countries as well and it is quite normal to try to protect your own culture and traditions.
My daughter is born in a family where four languages are being used. She is four and already understands very well at least 3 languages, but the only one who can get what she tries to say is me. She has a hard time to learn one language decently.
It is true that in Europe is easier to find a job knowing more languages, but is that necessary when living in other continents?
How is about Asia or Africa?
As far as I have seen, once you start traveling all over the world, the more useful language is English, then Spanish and French - in relation to the Colonial past and present circumstances.
Therefore, it is not a matter of laziness what prevents people to know more than the mother language.

Answer 4

In Europe and many other cultures, such as Japan, they start teaching foreign languages when the children are very young. The schools in the states do not do this. Also, for some people, learning another language is very difficult. I've tried. I lived in Germany for three years and had a hard time picking up the language. I've now been in Japan for eight years. I took college level courses trying to learn the language and I barely get by. I barely know more than a person who just moved here and it isn't from lack of trying. I just have a very difficult time with it.

Answer 5

Please don't talk about America if you mean the USA, my Canadian friends are always so upset, and the rest of America too, I suppose.

US Americans think that everybody everywhere has to speak English, just to accommodate them. Although there are English speakers in every country, in most they are few and far between.

Apart from arrogance, English is a language with a very simple structure and basic grammar (which is actually the reason that so many peole in other countries take it as a second language.) That makes it more difficult for English speakers to learn another language with lots of morphemes and a more complicated syntax.

Another reason that Europeans speak more languages is the fact that you can't go to university in any European country without having learned at least one foreign language, and of course, that
we all have neighbouring countries with other languages we want to do business with.

Answer 6

because most of the world knows or speaks some english.. so you are right we are lazy because we can be. Its sad really language is a beautiful thing and we are at a disadvantage in america because language learning is not an important part of our schooling.. Being that America is a mix of all types of people from all over the world , one would THINK that Americans would learn all types of languages throughout school.. but it is not the case.

Answer 7

The necessity does not exist for most people, to communicate in multiple languages. Not to say that people shouldn't learn other languages. Many countries like Canada are very multi-cultural. It helps a great deal to speak more than one language.

As far as business goes, it's very important to be able to communicate with your business partners. On a general level, it's important to be able to communicate with a stranger. I encourage other people to learn, if not all, then some of many different languages. I can't converse fluently in any other language, other than english but I make an effort to know different words in other languages for simple communication.

Of course, learning an other language can be difficult. Most people don't want to "put more on their plates". But like any other thing, practising is the only way to master it.

Answer 8

We are lazy in the U.S.A. But really, we are going to have to come out of it! In a global economy there are going to be more and more serious problems as we expect the rest of the world to just learn English; we have to do our part to help bridge the gap. Learning another language is not as difficult as most people think it is; it takes time and energy, but you can span it out over a long period of time, and you are more useful for the learning of it long before you become fluent.

Answer 9

Geopolitics. In Europe one only needs go a few hours to find himself in another country, culture and language. It is a practical necessity to learn other languages.
In the US, one can live their entire life without any inconvenience because of linguistics

Answer 10

Do you really believe that you learnt?? Well, well, well....

To start with, Europe has a totally different history and its geographic organisation leads people to behave like this. North Americans do not learn other languages because they're native in the language used worldwide to communicate.

Anyway, you should be just a bit more humble! This is your second question about language skills and as far as I saw, you're not exactly as good as you believe!

Give us a break, man! **********