I wish I knew another language

This isn't true of anyone I've ever known, and i believe it isn't true for the majority of Americans. I believe it's a loudly vocal minority who get angry at people speaking other languages or barely speaking English
- Yes, but this is the Fediverse, so Americabad
- This is truer than you might expect. Just not as blatant as the meme. Especially in a work context, people will underestimate someone's abilities, be inpatient with clarifications or simply favour others for tasks.
  It's unconcious with some people, they don't even know they're doing it.
  I am a first language English speaker, but my partner isn't and it's really opened my eyes to how much we underestimate the language difficulties immigrants can have.
  Not to say everyone is struggling, but just that I think English speakers do take language skills for granted. And unconsciously are biased towards people based on their preserved language skills.
  Even once you're fluent, like my partner well and truly is, it's still hard.
- Dear sir/madam, this is a meme.
  Exaggeration for comedic effect is not a crime.
  
  lmfao evidently a meme that makes people very angry. 15+ downvotes. fuckin americans man. you guys truly fucking hate each other. good job! great culture, just the best stuff... totally worth fighting for, and definitely worth inflicting on the rest of the world, buncha bitches

I disagree with this and its my experience that there are assholes speaking every language and that the English speaking world tends to be the most understanding when it comes to second language speakers using improper words and/or grammar.

Personally, and anecdotally, I've found English speakers to be quite forgiving of poor English — that is, they usually make an effort to try and understand someone with broken English, and they don't usually point out poor grammar (though, that could be because the majority of English speakers don't have the best grammar to begin with 😉). Especially when one compares them with some other cultures, eg the French.
- You haven't tried speaking bad English in a new York shop apparently.
  
  Oh that's just New Yorkers in general really
- Haha yes! That's it right there. Most Americans don't seem to have a master of this language.
  "Grammar Nazi's", as we call them, have very few friends. I haven't encountered a single one in years.

It's pretty hard to learn another language as an American unless you're able to travel to a place where that is used. I wasn't even allowed to take a foreign language class when I was in high school because I scored too poorly on English in grade school (from not doing homework, not because of aptitude). I haven't really had a need for it in my adult life either other than like 3 times where I had Spanish speaking customers when I worked at in retail and we still managed to overcome the language barrier.
- I don't get the downvotes here. Learning a language is not easy without immersion. Yes you can bang through literature and even multiple courses... but without frequent use our brains simply lose the connection. Neurons that fire together wire together. This goes doubly for speech.
  Many Americans (most?) are taught a second language in school but the lack of places to use it sees this education go to waste. The US is a large country with pockets of ethnic groups throughout - but as far as immersion with another language goes... it is sorely lacking.
  It's unfortunate but a reality.
  
  It's a lot about motivation. I'm sure many people have tried to learn a language, maybe on Duolingo or somewhere else. But as the initial excitement wears off, they give up. And that's normal, that's how most of us are built. You can't beat brain chemistry with sweet arguments that "it's good to know another language." There needs to be a strong incentive from the outside, like school when the second language is mandatory, or life in another country with no access to a community that speaks your language. With the internet, that's nearly impossible nowadays. There are a lot of expats who never assimilate in countries like Germany because in places like Berlin English will do. So I totally understand people from the US, who have limited access to other languages and cultures, plus whenever they go people speak English.
  
  Too add on
  I took a Spanish class in high school
  My dad knows some Spanish so he helped me practice but I passed with a good grade. I could not tell you one thing in Spanish. It was hard but kind of fun
  Hopefully my several thoughts and word vomit make sense
  
  without frequent use our brains simply lose the connection
  I just want to say that I've been learning an Asian language for over a decade and have retained almost all of it from infrequent immersion. I don't know how or why, but it sticks!
  What I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't feel discouraged because you think it's meaningless if you're not jumping in with both feet every day. Rather, you're still making some progress even when dipping your toes in occasionally. Trust the process!
- Yeah... this is incredibly dated.
  I went to high school 20 years ago and it was mandatory to take at least 2 years of another language. My school was extra so they have 4 years available of Spanish/French/German/Japanese/Mandarin. That wasn't case at every school in our district but they all had Spanish and French.
  This was public school.
  
  Yea, I'm older than you then. It wasn't required when I was in school just strongly suggested (unless they won't let you like was my case). That said, how many people that learn just those 2 years in high school retain it in adulthood or use it regularly? It's something that you have to work at and there's really not much value in that for most of us.
- I did it in school in rural Ohio before the internet and with very few resources available. Basically anyone can do it. You don't need immersion. Is it helpful? Yes. Is it necessary? No. Look at how many people live 40+ years in a country and never learn the language; immersion alone does almost nothing.
  
  How do you know you're pronouncing things correctly without native speakers to converse with?
- It’s pretty hard to learn another language as an American unless you’re able to travel to a place where that is used
  you can always learn Spanish... with over 10% of the population in America already speaking it, it should not be hard to find someone to practice or some content catered to them to practice with
  
  That 10% is mostly clustered in the South or southwest. In my social circle I know one person that's fluent and one who knows enough to get by and I didn't meet them until my late 20s. I've run across other people here and there but it's not really common where I live. It's simply more effort than it's worth at this point I wouldn't really gain anything by being bilingual.
- Any of the big languages should have a multitude of free online courses available and places to talk to native speakers. These days anyone who wants to learn a second language has the means to do it. It's difficult, but it's accessible.

This feels like French propaganda to deflect from how rude they tend to be if you don't speak French
- I speak French until they have enough of me butchering their language with my Jersey (New) accent. Bon Joor, je voo le pan. They beg me to stop and I keep going. Jaim vo d-nay. Mare C bo coo. They thank me for leaving.
  
  Ever heard japanese filtered through a southern accent? Oh HAI yo guh ZAI muss!
- Even if you speak French or at least try to they go like: huh?!
  
  Lean into it. Channel your inner Peggy Hill and repeat this phrase: Jay parlay fran-says tray bee-in. Jay-tude on lay-cole quart ons.
  They will beg you to switch back to English
- I will continue to maintain a laissez faire attitude towards French language.

I'm an American who speaks decent German. I've gotten this flak traveling in non-German speaking Europe - Stupid American only speaking English attitude thrown my way. Mother fucker I'm in France, a German would also be using English here. To some people the only way to not be "that American" is to speak all the languages.
On the flip side, I've had a few Germans ask me why I bothered learning their language when I could just use English.
- Moin Brudi, finde ich ziemlich nett von dir das du dir unsere Sprache antust.
  
  Ah cool, danke! Immer nett zu hören, dass jemand meine Versuche schätzt.
- I've had a few Germans ask me why I bothered learning their language when I could just use English.
  So, why? You can't leave us hanging like this!
  
  Haha I've lived there for almost a year between two stints and had a lot of free time for one of them so seemed like a fun thing to learn.
  It very occasionally has been helpful traveling in more rural Germany speaking areas
  
  I took German in high school (in the US) and I was really disappointed to learn that most people in Germany know English.
  I have used some German on the odd airport layover but it was never terribly useful even then. It made me sad

To be fair, 95% of people on that continent speak one or more of three languages. And those three languages (English, Spanish, French) are among the most widely spoken languages in the world.

This is nonsense. Only English teachers do this.

In my experience Americans find it cool when they hear another language, Anglo-Canadians though, they don't realize how racist they are towards French-Canadians and hate their language with a passion.
- French-Canadians, on the other hand, fully realize how racist they are towards Anglo-Canadians and hate their language with a passion.
  
  They do that by bending backwards and talking English whenever there's an Anglophone present no matter if they're the only one in a group of ten that doesn't speak French fluently 👍
  They do that by having the biggest college and university in Quebec be English ones (the latter being the third richest in Canada) 👍
  They do that by being more bilingual 👍
  They do that by never having prevented them from learning their language in school contrary to what happened to French Canadians outside Quebec 👍
  Fucking French Canadians and their hate for the english language! Truly they're bigots all of them!
  
  and not just language
  
  Fully agree with this, homie. Wife and I lived in Montreal area as temporary foreign workers for like 4 years. Tried so hard to fit in and be polite, but would essentially get spit at or ignored everytime my accent was a tiny bit off. Didn't say it perfectly the Quebecois way? Fuck you. Ask something in English? Hope you're in a tourist area, otherwise fuck you. Want your medical records/labs in a different language? Fuck you. Ask for English menus? Fuck you and now your waitress hates you.
  Also watched a friend from France repeatedly get told he's speaking French wrong. Also they have like an actual department of language policing.
  Quebec is poopy buttsauce. 0/10. Happy to be gone. Celine Dion is overrated. Sorry not sorry.
- From my experience as someone who lives in Alberta and who considers himself English Canadian, no one here actively hates french language or culture. We simply don't have enough of a need for french or enough of a cultural presence to really embrace it, and anyone who wants to has to actively go out of their way to do so. Maybe it's different in Ontario, but it isn't racism or hate. We simply don't use it
  
  Albertans don't hate on French Canadians, they hate on Quebec specifically.
  Hell, my friend went to work in the oil fields and had his car (with Quebec plate) vandalized at work in the first week he was there because he didn't have the time to register it in Alberta and was then told by other people it happened to that it's just what happens to all Quebecois over there...

You mean the french?
- MAAAAAAAHAAAA THE FRENCH

Reminds me of a joke that you hear a lot in Europe:
What do you call someone who can speak many languages? Polyglottal.
What do you call someone who can speak two languages? Bilingual.
What do you call someone who speaks one language? English.

…“doesn’t speak perfect English”
Yours sincerely, the English.
- Hi it's me, the English

I speak the same English that they used in the Bible.
- Forsooth, verily.

Non-native English speakers are still often better at English than native English speakers that choose to write like they are illiterate.

truly ironic given some of your accents
- U wot m8
  
  Ad it wif um. Fancy spoons?

Americans when someone doesn't speak English good enough: "They're English is bad!!!"

Homie I cant afford to get mad at bad english. I live in LA. I'm lucky if they speak English at all.

well, I think enough people from Latin America have immigrated that they have now skewed that metric... I read somewhere that, basically any other country with such a large population of bilingual individuals, declared the second language official
That'll never happen in Murica of course
- That is because the US does not have an official language at the federal level. Some states do though, and some only English is the official language but some do recognize Spanish and native American languages as official languages. Of course it would be nice to have a more formal approach but I was very surprised of how much stuff is written in more than one language and for Spanish in specific I think you have a very high chance of finding some employee that speaks it or they try to translate. At least in the couple of places that I have being which I admit is a small sample size
  
  Good to know, thanks for the info

Do you people just invent these problems because you hate Americans? Like... How do you come up with this garbage propaganda? Are you just reposting from tankie run bots designed to sow discord?
- Yes, and also just ignorance
- ive had people on the fediverse pick apart my english like they could speak 10 languages a few times.

I mean I just get turned on.
- More specifically because they are talking to me at all, not just in broken English.

I wonder if some English natives couldn't believe as kids that the entire damn world just happens to speak their language

The US has an insane portion of foreign workforce with non-native speakers being at the head of many fortune top 100 companies. This is unheard of for Europe.
US is probably the most linguistically and culturally accommodating place on the planet. The heck are you talking about, OP?
- I work in a call center where we are all speaking English as a second language. At one point we had a pharmaceutical company as a client. They had employees in different countries but the American employees whined that we didn't speak English correctly or made bad comments about my coworkers. Eventually we lost the contract and they went with an all American call center for their American employees, because apparently they didn't like our English.
  
  In a call center language is your main working tool. It has to be near-perfect. My experience communicating with a such "offshore call-center" was always less than subpar. And I'm not a native speaker either.
  And yet you have a foreign web developer who'd be better at waving hands than speaking English, and somehow nobody bats an eye. The web page looks great, so here's a round of applause for our jorgi, who can't even phrase a "thank you" back.
  Oh, and to bring the point back. Nowhere in Europe will you have non-native speakers working in a call center. Rare, very rare exceptions. And those all will speak their target language borderline perfect.
- Educated Americans, like the ones working in those big companies, know how stupid it is to make fun of someone who is already working in a second or third language... they are not the ones this meme is trying to insult
  Proudly uneducated Americans, like the ones who travel to other parts of the world and demand to be spoken to in English.... or the ones who have never left their county and are offended by a different sounding consonant, fit the bill perfectly
  
  I also travel everywhere, speak English to random people in restaurants and services and expect them to understand it. Cuz they can't possibly expect every visitor to their country to speak their language somehow?
  I always hear about obnoxious Americans traveling, speaking English to locals and being upset when they're not understood. I've never really seen much of it. Usually it's a polite "excuses me
  <insert phrase>
  ". Yes, said in English to a someone in a country where English is not the main language. Yet, what else do you expect them to do?
- This is just plain wrong. There are plenty such companies in Europe and surely in Asia as well (biontech popped into my mind immediately).
  Also the most linguistically accomodating? The US can't hold or defend that title. It's probably Luxembourg or Singapore, let's be honest.
- Have you ever been to the US? Even Brits get "corrected" by Yankees there, and I find that as amusing as it is sad.
  
  In my experience, only Brits get corrected, and really that's just a running joke. "Oi cunt, Bo'oh uh wah'ah?"
  Edit: actually that's not true, we do it to our own too. Ahem, "pahk the cah in hahvahd yard". See? Funny!

Broken english is one thing. Butchered is quite another
- My personal hint for everyone learning a foreign language to be understood in another country: Pronunciation, pronunciation, pronunciation! You only need around 2000 words to get around, but no-one can understand you if you butcher each and every one of the 100k words you’ve learned. Also grammar is optional. Nouns, adjectives and verbs in their basic forms convey enough meaning.
  
  As an American, when I learn another language I am taught to pronounce it correctly in the accent of that language. And yet when people from other countries learn English, it's so heavily accented and poorly pronounced I can barely understand wtf they're saying.
  Especially looking at you, Indians.

Brits: "This meme is wrong. .5 at best."

There is this youtube video with Jack Black and some others playing D&D. When they introduce their characters, they go on about how they are a polyglot like it is some amazing feat. This when every character in D&D knows at least common and some other language.
Anyway, that's just Tuesday in Europe.

Americans can't even speak english properly....
Basically the equivalent to learning english in the slums.

The only language that would be useful to know where I live would be Spanish.
And I fucking hate the Spanish language.
Edit: I should say I don't hate Spanish speaking people. Just the language. I honestly can't even say why I hate it I just do.
- Prolly racism lol
  
  The only problem is I have no specific reason for that to be the case. Like I said I have no problem with the people, just the language.
  
  Everything is racism