Why is it that other nations learn English but as a whole we don't do the same?

Question

I would love to learn languages, but found at school how difficult they were. Had good grades at French

Answer 1

Learning a language demands practice. To create such practices you need to find means to contact people and materials in that language. If you want to learn French, I have a few sites for you
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/
http://www.francaisfacile.com/
besides, you can enroll in a e-pen pall in French and search for French speaking people in msn.

Answer 2

We seem to be moving away from the idea of tolerance. Back when other nationalitiies were jsut as commopnplace in our home coutnries other languages were everywhere and we brought them in. Restuarants had their menus in their native language and we didn't have any trouble, if our french or italian wasn't up to scratch we would ask. And travelling abroad we would make the effort at least to buy a phrase book and get on with learning it.

Now we seem to have gone the other way. We aren't as accepting, and we expect people to know English. The languages havn't changed or got harder and mentally it is possible, if some people can learn 4 or 5 lagnauges is it too hard to expect most people to be able to know the basics in one other?

By the way if you are interested in learning languages have a look artound some colleges or learning centres, in my country (UK) there is a lot of government funding about getting new language schools up and running and it's a worrying issue for them and there's plenty of grant money for the schools that can pull in the teachers.

Answer 3

There was an idea many years ago that the world should have an international language It was called Esperanto I believe. The idea was that every country would be instructed in two languages from an early age; The second language would be universal so that no matter where you travelled in the world you would be fluent in the second language so that we could communicate effectively with each other and of course there would no longer be any need to be educated in several languages. Lets hope one day this will come into practise.

Answer 4

A couple of points, 1. What have the Americans got to do with this question.
2. It seems to me that even those that purport to speak English obviously can`t read it, look at the answers. this is the UK and Ireland site.
Other nations speak not only English but Spanish, Portugese, French, some Dutch, ask yourself what languages these countries speak, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, you may be surprised.

Answer 5

The best way to learn a language is to go where it is spoken, and to try and use it. It's particularly helpful if you have the basics (some useful phrases, etc.), and are able to make the people understand that you want to learn it - they'll be helpful with correcting pronunciation and teaching new phrases.

Learning languages is a game we play from early childhood - it's how babies and small children learn to speak. Curricula for teaching languages are very academic and structured, and not really natural.

Answer 6

We start learning languages too late. In France they start learning English at 5, in England we start learning French at 12/13, when all we want to talk about is boys!

Answer 7

we take the path of least resistance, its human nature.

More people have access to English so its easier to learn. These isn't a country in the world where you can't turn on a radio and find an English speaking station.

Other languages are not as accessible as that, although with the internet and digital transmission this is changing.

I fancy learning Nepolesian chow with a hint of Hymalayas. Any idea where i can listen to that ? but i bet a person from Nepal can find English.

Answer 8

That's probably the reason why we don't bother because we know that everyone else can speak a bit of English so we don't need to learn their language, we are probably just lazy. When I was at school which wasn't that long ago not much effort was put into teaching you a language its just not taken as seriously as other subjects.

Answer 9

Because the majority of Americans never leave the United States and never need another language. Why should they use time in language learning that they will never need when they can spent that time learning engineering or computer programming? It's a simple principle called conservation of effort.

Answer 10

English is the 'lingua franca' in most of the world. It is the most widely used language in commerce. So, if one wants to do well in most (not all) the world they must learn English. Spanish is a common language, and it is gaining strength. In the past Latin was the common language, and before that it was Greek. English will be around for a while yet.

Answer 11

From the standard of some of the questions and answers one sees here, I have to agree with you that all English speakers should work hard at learning English! Once they have mastered that, they should be in a better position to learn foreign languages.