TRUMP. NOTHING BUT TRUMP

[HairOfTheDog]

It's considered pretty normal by most Europeans to be able to converse well in at least two or three languages, there are simply too many cultures all mixed together there to do otherwise. Only the French are considered as big a group of assholes over the language issue, but it's not that they CAN't speak other languages they just don't want to. We are the only ones willfully and proudly stupid.

Hey, don't leave aussie, crash, and CN out of the club. The majority of natural born Australians, and to a lesser degree Brits, are also willfully and proudly stupid linguistically.

I know what you mean, but it's not true of the most recent generation. Something like 3 out of 5 of those speak a second language and one out of five of them is ESL

Since our countries expect immigrants to assimilate and learn the English language, ESL will continue to grow as immigration grows, especially if a good percentage of the immigrants are children.

If second generation immigrants maintain proficiency in their parents' native languages, then the monolingual percentage of natural born citizens will decrease.

Right now, both of our countries are currently about 75% monolingual, and England is somewhere around 65% monolingual, from all I've read.

One of the reasons we don't have more bi-lingual and multi-lingual natural born citizens is that continuous 'other language' study is not compulsory in school, as is the case in most European countries (and Asian countries, where English language study is often compulsory). And, the vast majority of natural born Americans and Australians don't choose to invest in learning another language*.

*Exception: Aside from those who study and practice polylingual profanity, like my friend aussie.