burger here. just wondering how common it is for european countries or others to learn english as a second language. judging from /pol/ a lot of euros and brazilians know english
>>81341628
It's mandatory.
I've had dozens of American friends aged 14-30 and so far none of them have learned a second language. I mean sure at school or wherever they had some French, Spanish or Russian classes but it was shit.
Not to be hateful here because even those friends themselves admitted it but American people are generally rather self-centered and thus don't feel like learning a second language matters to them. Can't really blame them I guess considering internet is 95% in English. You can pick up a new hobby, skill, anything, and can get your way around thanks to English, which can't be said the same for other languages.
As an example I learned Japanese through English, since French tools were horrible.
>>81342731
>It's mandatory
>>81342921
Explain yourself.
>>81342731
that's because all of the other countries are just side characters, America is god's chosen country, the main character of earth, and everything revolves around us.
>>81342731
>being forced to learn english so you can function
lmaoing at ur life
You either know english or you're wiping toilets for the rest of your life
Its simply a need, they teach us english since the age of 7
god damn i feel so lucky to be american.
literally every other country on earth is inferior.
>>81342731
>It's mandatory.
Sucks to be you
>>81343477
>>81342921
Aren't you bongs required to learn some continental language, just to be like the rest of Europe?
>>81343369
Yeah, you really are superior
May I add that an average american knows a lot less than an average european?
Your schools are shit
>>81343557
Not when I was at school, which wasn't long ago. You did one or two French classes during your first years of high school but it was an hour a week, no one bothered with it and everyone failed.
I think they still stick to the hour a week format but they start it a bit younger. Personally I think it's completely wrong and should be abolished totally.
>>81343644
We're pretty bad for how rich our country is
but the brits are worse
>>81343477
>>81341628
Yeah it really sucks to be able to speak 5 languages, fuck my life!
But yea, for me French, German and English were all mandatory in middle school for the first 3 years.
After that I still had to take English classes but on top of that I had to pick one more foreign language (I chose French since I live close to the German border and speak it well anyway).
Lower levels of education only require you to finish English but you still have to take German classes for a few years.
>>81342731
> 95% of the Internet is in English
A large amount of the Internet is in Mandarin, iirc
>>81343921
I meant relevant internet. Not chink shit.
>>81343865
Who cares? I go on holiday anywhere in the world and I talk in English. The 18 year old kid behind the bar or working in the hotel speaks better English than I ever will his language, so what's the point?
You'd do the same with Dutch if the world spoke it.
>>81343557
We get taught French and/or German at School but most of the time, students just piss around in those classes and through paper airplanes at the teachers. Nobody sees the point in learning another language because of how common English is throughout the world.
English is so much of a pragmatic language that other languages are shit in comparison. For example, in English you only have one word for "the" and two words for "a" with "an" only being used when the next word begins with a vowel.
>be some 3rd world poor shit
>know english better than the 95% of the USA
AMERIFATS BTFO
>>81344066
You don't realize how eye-opening and rich it is to be able to speak and think in more than one language. If you'd speak more than one language you could understand; I speak 3 languages and soon I'm planning on learning Russian.
It's about enriching yourself we're talking about, not about ordering a café in Venise.
>>81344066
If you don't speak a second language I don´t expect you to know the benefits of it, that's fine.
But your post made it seem like it's a negative thing to learn another language, which is just ignorant.
>>81343921
Yeah, but speaking Mandarin is fucking impossible because nobody speaks pure Mandarin except in trade hubs like Hong Kong.
No, it's the ten billion different bastard offspring of Mandarin that everybody speaks.
>>81344438
People in Hong Kong speak Cantonese
you have to know atleast 2-3 languages in Europe
>>81343837
>The brits are worse.
Fucking kek you burgers are delusional.
I think europeans in general learn their english from tv & films. Most french people that I know speak horrible english because their movies are dubbed.
>>81344438
Having a lot of Chinese friends from different regions,
Even though they speak different dialects, their parents all speak Mandarin fluently on top of that, it's not that big of an issue from my understanding.
Also Hong Kong uses Kanto dialect.
>>81344423
It is negative. Why would I speak someone else's language when they make an effort to speak mine? It's clearly something you're all very proud of.
>>81344387
>It's about enriching yourself we're talking about
If something has been said or written in a language other than English then it isn't worth the time.
If people want to waste their time learning languages then that's down to them but it's really no use for someone who has English as a first language, as you can be understood everywhere.
Who here /7languages/ ?
Serbian, bosnian, croatian, montenegrin, english, italian, and russian
>>81344670
French people in general have a huge chip on their shoulder about the English.
>>81344712
>>81344564
Well now, don't I have egg on my face.
Still, learning Mandarin is extremely difficult for not that much gain.
>tfw you come from a blue county
>>81344670
I can confirm. French people are also proud of themselves and a lot of them straight up refuse to learn or use English.
A good example would be on internet, even on /pol/ itself : you'll naturally see French people end up using French to talk to each other, something people from other countries very rarely do.
>>81344871
off yourself
>>81344252
English is pragmatic and there are no guardians or eternals of the English language. So while there are recommendations and standard practices, there is no truly correct English.
>>81344652
The Americans have a massive amount of Spanish in their daily lives. If you want to be any sort of public sector or service worker in the US you will need some Spanish, bordering on fluency in the border states.
My cousin lives in Florida and she is half Colombian half English, she speaks Spanish most of the time as a working language. The UK and Japan are probably the last modern countries left where people only know their own language.
>>81342731
I have literally never once needed to know a foreign language.
I was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming but I'm Swedish.
This graph is pretty fucking good.
>>81345141
if you were born in America, you're not Swedish.
If a rat is born in a stable, does that make it a horse?
>>81341628
Languages are mandatory at school. I started with english in primary school, then French in 7th grade. I started Spanish in 10th grade, but quit, because I had no motivation at the time kek.
You can also take more languages, if you want to, but two foreign languages were mandatory at my high school all the was up to graduation.
>>81342731
Most baguettes don't know English for shit tho. Even young people. France is another world in that regard. If you don't speak French, you're fucked. I've visited France countless times, and I wouldn't be able to communicate if I didn't know some French.
>>81345408
If you can't speak gailic, you're not really British.
>>81345005
Why are you angry?
It's simply not required if you speak English as a first language. Some people might like doing it, but that doesn't mean it's worth doing. If it interests them then good for them, but literally everyone born speaking English may as well not bother.
When I worked abroad the working language was English, despite being in Liechtenstein. The Liechtenstein people, Austrians and Swiss I worked with had studied English their whole lives. What would I achieve by trying to learn any German, other than some jumbled phrases?
>>81345505
Dumb yankee, the Brits spoke Brythonic, not gaelic, and I speak a bit of Scottish Gaelic that I taught myself, so shut the fuck up.
>>81343557
I'm thirty one this year and a foreign language was compulsory from 10-16. It was French only until 14 and then French, Spanish or German for the last two years. You could also do extra curricular Latin.
>>81345801
Got all pissy there Rory jeez
I learned some ancient Hebrew a few years ago. It is read right to left.
I don't know if it has anything to do with starting on the left side of your brain, but in English I wasn't able to articulate some things that I was able to in Heeb. It was easier for me to contextualize ideas by using my imagination rather than in English where you have to specify everything, and if you don't get it exactly right, nobody knows what you're talking about.
>>81341628
We all know English because American Jews have been controlling us for years..
>>81345141
Laramie represent
>>81344936
They're just mad we stole their thunder.
>>81345951
And on that note, reading the bible is completely fucked in English.
>>81346050
I lived in Laramie for a short time. Went to Slade and the middle school that was at the university.
>>81344961
Except for hitting on Chinese students, which are extremely common in my city. Or at least that was the theory - 6 months of Rosetta Stone on my daily commute...
>>81345478
That's what I described here yes >>81345005.
>>81345523
I'm not upset I'm just saddened at how close minded your mentality is.
>It's simply not required if you speak English as a first language.
I already said this in my first post, yes.
>but that doesn't mean it's worth doing
translation :
>I don't myself so it's not worth it
Learning a new language means learning a new world, a new culture and a new way to see, think and feel all sorts of things. Think I'm overblowing things? Fine then let's agree to disagree. I just hope one day you realize what I'm trying to convey; though if not it's fine too, you can be happy without having to learn another language after all. Do whatever you want of your life, but be deaf or refute what we're trying to explain to you because you're in no position to hold a full-fledged opinion on this matter.
>>81342731
>generally rather self-centered and thus don't feel like learning a second language matters to them
How the fuck does learning a different language make me any less self centered? Should I learn Turkish or Arabic so I can tell the mudslimes to not murder me in their own language?
Are you fuckin retarded or what
>>81346430
You seem like a bright person. Well I'm on /pol/ after all.
Took six months of Arabic in the military. Couldn't even order a cup of coffee after the course. Always about quality over quantity
>>81346528
>i have no argument
>>81346379
>Learning a new language means learning a new world
objectively false. I'm fluent in Spanish and I've never been to Spain, and I have no fucking idea what its like and never will unless I see it for myself.
Being able to speak to somebody with less barricades doesn't mean you've learned their culture dumbfuck
>>81342731
Everyone has to "learn" a second language, at least in Ohio. The problem is two-fold, that most people find little use for it after the classes end is a huge hurdle in retention. This is combined with the general insular nature of many areas in the US. Traveling to a new country in Europe is easy, in the US its more difficult. Why go to Montreal or Mexico, the closest places with other languages, when you could go to the beach in the US, or Boston for a historical city. Natural wonders? Don't even need to leave the US for that either.
>>81345051
So you speak 2 languages, you feel cool bout that right?
You guys really need to calm down, europeans usually know more than 2 languages, so stop bragging about speaking english and knowing how to ask your way in spanish
>>81341628
Koreans are learning English as a second language for the fact that the rely on it for their companies to succeed and for the fact they enjoy going to the U.S. and seeing the sights and meeting the people. They find it easy to learn, but very difficult for them to actually enunciate since the tongue and mouth movements are different from their own language. They literally have to train their faces and mouths to speak English somewhat properly. Most can speak English and nearly all can read and write it, but many won't speak it because they have no reason to.
I told my last ESL class that they shouldn't worry if their English is all broken, because it is still better than the ebonics spewed by blacks and cucks trying to be black. Big laughs, everyone felt better about their English after that, and a few just openly said they hated niggers.
I wasn't really shocked from hearing that, just surprised they would speak openly.
>>81347232
Asians universally despise Niggers and Sandniggers.
Surprisingly, when confronted with it most Asians do not hate white trailer trash, they are repulsed by it yes, but not out right hatred like niggers provoke.
At least, that's my experience.
>>81341628
It's mandatory in grades 5 through 11 but barely anybody gives a shit including the teachers. You'll get A if you don't sound like an absolute retard after 7 years of studying.
>>81348294
Its true.
>>81342731
>American people are generally rather self-centered and thus don't feel like learning a second language matters to them
It's nothing to do with being self-centered, we don't do it because it literally doesn't matter. 95% of Americans can pick at least 2 (usually 3) compass directions, drive for 2+ days, and still be in the same country. If in an alternate timeline, all the countries in Europe spoke English as their native language, how many Europeans would bother learning Russian? Or Chinese? Or Arabic? I'd wager almost none.
It sincerely boggles my mind that people have trouble understanding such a simple concept.
>>81342731
>don't feel like learning a second language matters to them.
When the entirety of the US (and most of Canada), which is larger than continental Europe, there's very little reason to learn foreign languages outside hobby or business reasons.
>>81348666
Hello, Satan.
Anyway, my working theory is that they see White Trailer Trash like they would see their own rural villages, or alternatively, the tragic result of their forebears making poor decisions and them not being suited or finding moving up the ladder to be very difficult and unrewarding.
Asians have weird relations with caucasoids.
