Job Discussion Forums

[Qaaolchoura]

OK, I'm sure I'd have learned more than one language if I'd had the opportunity, i.e. if American adults didn't 1. dismiss language learning as unnecessary and 2. fear, completely incorrectly that it will interfere with English learning. Still, ten languages at ten years old? I wonder how fluent she is, but she's fluent enough to pass these competency tests, which is impressive.

Which reminds me:
If a person who speaks two languages is bilingual, a person who speaks three languages is trilingual, and a person who speaks many languages is multilingual, what do you call somebody who speaks one language?


Answer (highlight to see): American

~Q

[johnslat]

Dear Qaaolchoura,

Your answer certainly isn't true in New Mexico, where the majority of the population is Hispanic. Most people in this state speak at least two languages.
(And thats' probably the case in many/most border states and in Florida.)

Regards,
John

[Sashadroogie]

[Qaaolchoura]

John, it's a joke that I heard at one point, but one that is largely true.
New Mexico's likely an exception, as is Texas. I know a lot of people from south and central Texas, and yes, they speak pretty fluent Spanish. And my cousin moved to San Diego and picked it up pretty quickly. However my relatives in Miami do not speak Spanish, nor do people I've met from LA. I suspect that the difference is that in Texas, New Mexico, and San Diego, there were large Spanish speaking populations when they were conquered from Mexico, and maintained coherent communities in the face of Anglo migrants, who as the immigrants themselves picked up the native language. Whereas LA (originally a small city) and Miami are mostly recent Hispanic immigrants.

And the fact that a lot of people speak Spanish doesn't change the fact that people in other countries tend to be much more multilingual than Americans.
Immigrants to the US do tend to be multilingual, as do their children, but often their grandchildren aren't because we don't generally place much value on it, or take it seriously.

That said, to return briefly to the article I linked: that little girl is pretty impressive, isn't she? Oddly, I don't feel jealous, or especially motivated (though I refuse to settle back down in the US until I'm fluent in at least two other languages), just really impressed.

~Q