i'm sorry, but a lot (most tbh) people who speak multiple languages live in worse conditions than the average american. the main reason americans are monolingual is cultural, not due to their own immediate material conditions.
The nearest city where English is not the majority language by a large margin is about 600 miles away from me, or about the distance between Paris and Vienna. My immediate material condition is that since I can't afford to travel, I don't do international business, and I will likely never be in a city that isn't majority English speaking for the rest of my life, there is no pressing material need to learn any other languages. Many if not most Americans are in the same position; The international lingua franca is their native language, they cannot afford to travel to places where other languages are spoken, and unless they live in the Southwest they will probably not interact with populations that speak another language for most of their lives.
i think the lingua franca argument is pretty strong. i was gonna add it to my initial comment but i had some stuff to do and opted not to. americans still have a reputation of only knowing English even when compared to other anglophone countries though. i know Europeans make fun of the English for the exact same reason, but i feel like on a global level America is still the worst when it comes to this.
and i feel like in your comment it also shows how it's a bit cultural, you only pointed out utilitarian reasons for learning a language, which is a bit like pointing out utilitarian reasons for looking at art.
please don't take this personally because i don't mean to be rude to americans personally, it's just an observation and a critique of the idea that America is somehow an uniquely awful country for the working class.
I'm not saying America is good or bad for the working class, just that there are very immediate material reasons why learning a second language is not only of low utility value, but also very difficult because there are few opportunities to organically use that language in your day to day life.
that isn't really a charitable interpretation of what i said lol
what i meant to convey is that trying to explain the fact that americans don't speak other languages solely with the fact that they don't have the means to doesn't really stick when it's objectively one of the better countries in the world to live in, despite how god awful it still is. it's not like the rest of the world live more comfortable lives.
Look, there are two material reasons why Americans don't often learn other languages. The first is that they usually don't need to: English is the most widely spoken language in the world. People from poorer countries might have to have more than one language for one reason or another just to get by.
The second goes to what you're saying about comfortable lives: yes, Americans are more comfortable in many ways than most other people. But they don't enjoy the kind of social-democratic benefits that Europeans typically enjoy, which means they often don't have the time to learn other skills or travel internationally like Europeans do. It's hard to find the time to learn a language or experience another culture when your government doesn't mandate paid leave.
Anyway, this shit is so petty. I just don't understand why self-described communists would ever make fun of millions of people for a lack of education in a foreign language. That's the kind of shit liberals do.
i'm not making fun of Americans for not speaking another language. i'm at most critiquing and poking fun at american culture. speaking other languages isn't just knowledge, it's a door for a deeper understanding of other cultures and peoples. americans being monolingual is also a reflection of american exceptionalism and the disdain of the Other.
this isn't a phenomenon that is exclusive to working class people, even wealthy americans or americans traveling abroad won't know a lick of another language. not sure why the comparison to europe. again, i'm not comparing America to other NATO or OECD countries, i'm comparing it globally.
i do agree this is petty and i'm not sure why a lot of people are treating this as some sort of personal slight when it is not. i'm not moralizing being monolingual, i just disagree with the view that american monolingualism is only due to economic factors and somehow neatly separated and insulated from american culture, which people on this site have no trouble critiquing and poking fun at, for instance.
i'm sorry, but a lot (most tbh) people who speak multiple languages live in worse conditions than the average american. the main reason americans are monolingual is cultural, not due to their own immediate material conditions.
The nearest city where English is not the majority language by a large margin is about 600 miles away from me, or about the distance between Paris and Vienna. My immediate material condition is that since I can't afford to travel, I don't do international business, and I will likely never be in a city that isn't majority English speaking for the rest of my life, there is no pressing material need to learn any other languages. Many if not most Americans are in the same position; The international lingua franca is their native language, they cannot afford to travel to places where other languages are spoken, and unless they live in the Southwest they will probably not interact with populations that speak another language for most of their lives.
i think the lingua franca argument is pretty strong. i was gonna add it to my initial comment but i had some stuff to do and opted not to. americans still have a reputation of only knowing English even when compared to other anglophone countries though. i know Europeans make fun of the English for the exact same reason, but i feel like on a global level America is still the worst when it comes to this.
and i feel like in your comment it also shows how it's a bit cultural, you only pointed out utilitarian reasons for learning a language, which is a bit like pointing out utilitarian reasons for looking at art.
please don't take this personally because i don't mean to be rude to americans personally, it's just an observation and a critique of the idea that America is somehow an uniquely awful country for the working class.
I'm not saying America is good or bad for the working class, just that there are very immediate material reasons why learning a second language is not only of low utility value, but also very difficult because there are few opportunities to organically use that language in your day to day life.
So your logic here is that the more poor you are, the more languages you automatically speak?
that isn't really a charitable interpretation of what i said lol
what i meant to convey is that trying to explain the fact that americans don't speak other languages solely with the fact that they don't have the means to doesn't really stick when it's objectively one of the better countries in the world to live in, despite how god awful it still is. it's not like the rest of the world live more comfortable lives.
Look, there are two material reasons why Americans don't often learn other languages. The first is that they usually don't need to: English is the most widely spoken language in the world. People from poorer countries might have to have more than one language for one reason or another just to get by.
The second goes to what you're saying about comfortable lives: yes, Americans are more comfortable in many ways than most other people. But they don't enjoy the kind of social-democratic benefits that Europeans typically enjoy, which means they often don't have the time to learn other skills or travel internationally like Europeans do. It's hard to find the time to learn a language or experience another culture when your government doesn't mandate paid leave.
Anyway, this shit is so petty. I just don't understand why self-described communists would ever make fun of millions of people for a lack of education in a foreign language. That's the kind of shit liberals do.
i'm not making fun of Americans for not speaking another language. i'm at most critiquing and poking fun at american culture. speaking other languages isn't just knowledge, it's a door for a deeper understanding of other cultures and peoples. americans being monolingual is also a reflection of american exceptionalism and the disdain of the Other.
this isn't a phenomenon that is exclusive to working class people, even wealthy americans or americans traveling abroad won't know a lick of another language. not sure why the comparison to europe. again, i'm not comparing America to other NATO or OECD countries, i'm comparing it globally.
i do agree this is petty and i'm not sure why a lot of people are treating this as some sort of personal slight when it is not. i'm not moralizing being monolingual, i just disagree with the view that american monolingualism is only due to economic factors and somehow neatly separated and insulated from american culture, which people on this site have no trouble critiquing and poking fun at, for instance.