lol not in absolute numbers terms, no way. The US has 5x the population, and there are tons of immigrants that speak multiple languages. So regardless of how stupid native-born citizens are, there are still many bilingual+ people.
This is an outdated stereotype. I’d be willing to bet more French speak a second language than Americans.
LurkingLuddite@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
dreamkeeper@literature.cafe 3 weeks ago
Absolute numbers? what kind of intentionality disingenuous comparison is that? We have like 4x they’re population.
Try visiting France. Almost everyone in the major cities speaks English to a competent degree. Only like a quarter of Americans speak Spanish equivalently. I mean not even all Latin people speak Spanish in the US.
LurkingLuddite@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
So you mean to degrade the immigrant US population further?
Just because Trump and his ilk barely know what “caliente” means does not erase the MASSIVE population who are ESL in the US.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
most people i know who grew up in california took at least a couple years of high school spanish.
i was a snot, i took german with the goth kids instead.
Hazel@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
I’ve been in France for two days and have already met 2 young people who didn’t speak more than high school English. Oh and I’m a tourist, so they were working a job where they have to interact with foreigners regularly…
Now of course anecdote isn’t statistics, and my French is certainly no better, but compared to other European countries their English level is… notable.
AceOnTrack@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
The reality is that most French people speak enough english to get by, we just don’t like speaking it.
dreamkeeper@literature.cafe 3 weeks ago
Wow two who young people. So windy everyone else spoke English Ruby? Front lie to me because I’ve been there many times and I know they do.
It’s crazy how Americans get defensive about the dumbest fucking shit.
Hazel@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Yes, almost everyone spoke English, I never lied about that. Just compared to other European countries I’ve been, 2 is still notable. In many countries it’d be hard to find a single young person who didn’t speak English even if you were trying to find them for 2 days.
I’d know because I live in a European country, I’m not American.
Tja@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
But not than Belgians, Dutch, polish or Germans, which are the most frequent comparisons.
Miaou@jlai.lu 3 weeks ago
Why would the Dutch/Polish/Germans speak more languages?
dalekcaan@feddit.nl 3 weeks ago
Idk about the Polish and Germans personally, but for the Netherlands at least it’s a relatively small country with a limited amount of entertainment made there, so a ton of media is imported and subtitled. Since a lot of it comes from the US and UK, and most of it is subtitled (for the most part only kids’ shows are dubbed over), the majority of people speak or at least understand English. According to Wikipedia, it has been estimated that as much as 90% to 97% of the population is proficient in English.
Nugscree@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Also English, French and German are part of you high school curriculum next to Dutch so at least you get a basic understanding of 3 other languages, of the 3 English is the one that sticks the most because of the aforementioned media that gets imported.
Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
Belgium alone has 3 official languages: French, Dutch and a German speaking part.
The French part refuses to learn any of the other official languages, even in school. They don’t see the need.
While the other parts are a lot more open to other languages. You will be hard pressed to find someone in Flanders that doesn’t speak French on top of their Dutch.
AceOnTrack@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
?
What are you talking about.
We have obligatory 2 foreign language in our school curriculum.
Most people take English lv1 and then whatever of Italian/Spanish/German is closest border to them.