why british people dont speak any other language ?

Question

british people had colonies almost every where around the world and they have lived in different cultures but have never ever learnt anything from different cultures !! british have ruled over india for more than 200 years but they never used to speak any indian languages .. JUST ENGLISH .. why do they still expect people to follow them even though rest of the world is so much diversed nowdays...i think is FAKE EGO !!

Answer 1

Remember that at the time of the British Raj, there was a prevalent attitude that there was a calling to bring the benefits of Western civilization to the benighted people of the world. Of course, one of these benefits was the English language. This attitude was not exclusively British. Almost all of the colonialist powers during that time insisted on their particular language as the primary language for doing business and working with the government.

However, this is not to say that English-derived people in those locations did not learn the local languages or adapt items from the local cultures. Curry, for example, is a very popular meal in England and it comes from Indian cuisine. There are a lot of borrowed terms in the English language from the various language groups from India and other areas.

This does not fully answer your question, however. I suspect your question is based on the prevalence of English in the worlds of business, travel and other areas. The reason why English is used as a lingua franca in these areas is that English is a fairly simple language with a basic structure and the ability to incorporate other language or to create new words. As such, it has become the common language for maritime communications, airplane operations, politics (along with French, Mandarin Chinese and others) and many other areas.

It's not ego, it's just plain practicality.

Answer 2

Well, if they were ruling over them then they would of used English, and taught English, not learnt their language. And I wouldn't be surprised if the people in those countries did learn some of the language, I can imagine army officers and political figures learning some, but that doesn't mean that people back in Britain would of leant it too, would it? It's not like just because Britain ruled India every British person had to learn Indian. So, yeah, if anything they wanted to enforce the use of English, to make it a British place, if you see what I mean.

EDIT: I hate to see people generalise the people of my country so much. "In general, the British are a group of close-minded people." I'm sorry, but you don't have a real basis for saying this, you might know people who are British, but you don't know everyone in the country. You probably don't know every government policy, or scientific experiment that is performed by the British in Britain.
It's true most of Britain has little need to use other languages, maybe because when they travel abroad people speak English? I, however, plan to learn languages, and travel and learn about other countries. I plan on learning some Swedish - my cousin lives in Sweden, he happens to be British but speaks Swedish quite well. I also hope to travel across Europe and Asia. Please, don't offend me by calling me uneducated and close-minded.

Answer 3

In general, the British are a group of close-minded people. They may speak English fluently, since it's their first language, but most of the people in remote countrysides are still uneducated. I am from a country that was colonised by the British years before I was even born, but I learnt to speak English rather fluently. And, I think, I'm far more educated than some of the Britons, too.

Answer 4

They used to bee able to back that up with gunboat diplomacy, and had a great run at Ruling the Waves. They will tell you the reason they don't learn other languages is because English is so beautiful and is the language of Chaucer and Shakespeare. But they are on the decline now, and not keeping up with a changing world will certainly not serve them well in the years to come.

Answer 5

Because the English language grew to become the 3rd most widely spoken language in the world (after Chinese and Spanish). This is why other European nations are multlingual (such as the Netherlands--in Dutch, German, and English) while British people still only speak English. They didn't find the need to.

Answer 6

@ all the people who said European languages are from Latin. That's really ignorant of you. What makes you think all the languages of Europe are from Latin? They certainly are NOT all from Latin! They come from many different language families. Latin was used ONLY because of the churches & the dominating Christians from those churches. Everybody should be free to choose their own religion and not be bound by only one being used as a "standard". We are living in the 21st century?! Besides, none of the languages of Europe are of Latin origin, unless only those pesky Romance languages which are really a misnomer today.

Answer 7

I agree with you that British (and Australian) people are missing out on not speaking other languages.
I think languages should be taught in every school at PRIMARY level, not high school.
This is the case in most European countries with English and by the time they leave school most students have a good knowledge of English.

Answer 8

Because the SUN never Sets on the English language!!!!!!!!



I am joking, but I think your question is terribly generalizing!

I speak portions of 20 languages.

Answer 9

Not ego mate - Just lazy, that's where we Aussies inherited it from.......not worth the effort unless it makes an earth-shattering difference to ya life!
(sad fact, but true.....It's why we are EXTRA nice to visitors from other countries)

Punch.. Lighten up a little - Keep in mind the whereabouts of your Barmy Army! (we may keep them)

Answer 10

Because the British think their accent is wicked awesome so they decided to keep it.

Who can blame them? They do have the coolest accent ever.