this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2024
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I know it's a joke about Americans not speaking a second language, but they aren't too bad at it. They land at about 23% and seeing how the EU average is 25% that's rather good. https://www.americathebilingual.com/the-surprising-truth-about-american-bilingualism-what-the-data-tells-us/
That site is so weird. And whoever wrote that article is also mathematically illiterate. Not to mention they didn't link to any sources. So here is one they claim to have used:
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Foreign_language_skills_statistics#Level_of_command_of_best_known_foreign_language
This source says that 65% of 25-64 year old spoke at least a second language in 2016. The much lower number of 24% is when asked about proficiency, which can't be compared with the US given Americans' notorious overestimation of their own qualifications.
Most of the 25% of Americans (I couldn't find a source for this) claiming to speak a second language is immigrants. I guess it needs to be said, but when people comment on the monolongualism of Americans, it's about those who are not immigrants or first generation born in the US.
In my experience, most non Hispanics claiming to speak Spanish in the US struggle to hold even a basic conversation. And I have been to 35+ states, including door to door canvassing, etc.
It is easy to find many other sources with the same statistics. These as I understand them are people who speak 2 languages and not people who have simply learned some of a second language. There are a lot of American people speaking Spanish in the US, of course there are also for example, 1.5 million who speak vietnamese.
This is broadly true with white Americans when their immigrant background is there already for generations... but a huge part of america does not even speak English at home. America is a melting pot of people from everywhere in the world and they naturally bring their languages, food, and culture with them. It is easy to forget, especially when only looking at specific demographics of a diverse country.
Dear americans,
having a great great grandmother who lived in sicily doesn't make you Italian.
With contempt,
The World
Dear Germans, When someone had a grandfather who was Turkish that doesn't make their german born descendants Turkish... They are german.
Dear brits, The Indian guy who's grand parents were born in Britain... he's not "the Indian guy", he's brittish.
Dear French, French is not a skin color. It's a nationality. A black guy can be French too.
With contempt
Immigrant descendents in Europe.
The thing about people's roots is it's complicated, messy, and not only an American problem. More compassion and understanding goes a long ways.