Why this resistance in learning another language in the USA?

Question

We live in a globalized world. You are bound to hear all kinds of languages. That's inevitable. I KNOW in a Jewish synagogue near New York City, and I don't live there, the rabbi is using Hebrew and/or Yiddish. In a mosque, Arabic. Hispanics use Spanish [or "Spanglish" some call it] Why so many in this USA dislike listening foreign languages? I speak, write, read and understand English and Spanish. Why the fuss? What do you think?

Answer 1

I think it's hilarious that there are so many people on here that talk about how everyone should learn "American" when "The Americas" includes North, South, and Central America. Nobody in other countries calls the United States "America", they call us "the states". Besides that, there are so many advocates for only teaching English in schools, but if it works so well, then why are there so many people on this website that can't put a grammatically correct sentence together??
As a Spanish teacher in a white-suburban town I see first hand that diversity is NOT put in everyone's face and that the ignorance that some are preaching here in this forum is just perpetuating hate and this feeling that we are somehow superior just because we have more money in the United States. In Europe, almost everyone speaks three languages or more.

Answer 2

Sweden requires thier people to learn English, and America should require to learn Spanish. If most of the Americans learned Spanish it would help a lot more in the immigration debate, and get a real resolution to the problem. Untied States gonna incorperate Spanish if they dont like or not, and Mexico will get English influences like or not in time, but still in 200 years the Americans will understand the British, and the Mexcians will still understand the Spanish as it today. In addittion the American English, and Mexican spanish will converge engouh to make it so people can understand and speak to each other like Spanish, and French do in time.

Answer 3

Another reason that I haven't seen mentioned, for Americans not wanting to learn how to speak a second language, is just plain geography. In Europe, particularly, any place you start in, if you go 600 miles in any direction, you are in a different country, with a different language. In the US, our country is so large that you could go 1500 miles in any direction, and STILL be in America, needing only to speak English, and to cut through accents.
Personally, I don't feel any NEED to learn a foreign language, and I'm not going to. If I felt that I HAD to, I would. Why should I be forced to learn the language of impoverished, illiterate, peasant invaders??

Answer 4

It's not so much a resistance to learn a second language, it's actually required for college. It's beng force to accomadate others in an inappropriate fashion. The language of the US is English, its wrong that a visitor comes and force everyone to learn their language to accomadate them. I hear people say Americans are rude because when they visit, they expect everyone to speak English, well it's the same the other way around.

Answer 5

There isn't so much a resistance to learning another language as a resentment to feeling as though we HAVE TO in order to get along in USA.
Many feel the USA is an English speaking country and it is the responsibility of those who come here to live, to learn the language, rather than the USA making special accomodation to them.

Answer 6

Before, in school, Foreign Language was an elective. As an elective, people got a choice of learning primarily Spanish, French or Latin. The neat part about learning languages was that at the same time you learned the culture too.

Today, diversity is thrown in our face daily. Not only do we have diversity, we have illegals in the USA demanding citizen rights while they carry Mexican flags, we have hostility from the French and we're told that we have to accommodate other cultures who come to our land and want a piece of the American pie.

With this in mind, I think many Americans have just rebelled and say they are tired of what they feel is America accommodating with nothing but criticism in return. With these thoughts in mind, the last thing many want to participate in is learning a foreign language. Its a way of saying "we're tired of it!"

You may not agree or you may think US citizens are wrong to be this way, but its how millions feel.

Answer 7

What resistance to learning another language are you talking about? Lots of Americans learn another language, people just don't want it shoved down our throat by people that don't want to learn English, that we should learn their language to COMMUNICATE with them in our own country.

Your question contradicts your statement following your question. In your statement, you talk about people "hearing" all kinds of languages. That's a given. Hearing foreign languages is not the problem. The problem comes from people moving to the U.S. that refuse to LEARN English, and insist that Americans, that speak English, learn THEIR language.
We have MILLIONS of people that immigrate here from DOZENS of countries that speak DOZENS of different languages, but only ONE Americans should learn THEIR language to communicate with them.

Answer 8

I agree. I think everyone should stop resisting and learn english. If I move to another country I would be expected to learn the language of that country and not have everyone conform to me.

Answer 9

It's okay for you, an individual, to learn as many languages as you want, or a private school that teaches in other language. For public school, you can take Spanish class or French class or Latin class...

What people concern about is that our public school would have a bi-lingual curriculum, and that is not right. Our public school should only teach in ENGLISH and not other language, period.

Every citizen of this great country have to learn English, it's the language of the land. They would do themselves a disservice if they don't. How can you advance without English? It's just common sense.

Noone objects to your learning of other languages, just bi-lingual teaching in public school. Remember, bi-lingual teaching, not language classes.

Answer 10

In certain areas of the country, there is actually a little latent guilt over the fact that we took over portions of another country through the auspices of Manifest Destiny. There was also quite a bit of dispute over who was going to Colonize America in the first place, and that led to a bit of antipathy toward the languages of the countries that lost out. Ben Franklin tried to get Congress to declare the National Language to be German, since it was considered the language of Science and technology at the time, but he lost out by one vote. With all of this competition for a predominant language, it is a bit easier to understand why the average person resists learning an additional language. There is a bit of irony in all of this since we have more than a little bit of paranoia when it comes to someone speaking in a language we don't understand in our presence.

Scientifically speaking, there is a distinct advantage in learning more than one language, especially since syntax and sentence construction varies so much from language to language. We can literally learn to think in different directions by mastering different tounges. But if you are a relatively new country that is a bit defensive about it's lack of history (comparatively speaking) you are bound to be a bit irrational about things like this I suppose.

Answer 11

There is no resistance.. lots of people here speak more then one language.. what there is, is a resistance to people trying to force us to learn another language

edit:
and to clarify a comment some where above me... yes some people consider American a language.. because our English is different- some people do say we speak American rather than English