Why do most people who have English as their first language, not speak a second?
It is a real shame. I think that part of it is that in the United States, the ability to learn a language is viewed as an esoteric talent that is an optional extra to being a well educated person. People will happily say they are no good at languages where a professional would never admit to being innumerate or illiterate. Sure, some people are better than others, but, in countries where mastery of another language is considered a basic educational requirement, people just get on with and do it because they know that professional barriers will be placed in the way if they don’t. In many countries, all medical education, for example is in English, and the students have to demonstrate mastery of English before being accepted to medical school.
You must be talking about Americans. That is the common impression people have. People who choose not to learn a second language live ia society where they expect others to learn their language. Since most of the world learns English as a second language, some who speak English feel they have no need to learn to speak another language. In my mind this is a mistake and shows ignorance. For the record, I am American and i speak 3.
There is no need #1 as English seems to be a common language among people in the 70 countries I have traveled to. In the USA, most students learn a 2nd language but never get a chance to practice or keep up with it unless they travel to that location where their 2nd language is spoken frequently. This is unfortunate but… I just recently experienced this in a border area of Thailand where Thai, Laotian, Cambodian, & Vietnamese was being spoken and the ONLY common words were in English among all people present.
I think it’s just because since the US is such a large country, people rarely come in to contact with people who speak other languages so for most English is all that is even applicable. I speak Spanish decently, but rarely if ever do I have an opportunity to use it (in fact I wish I could use it more).
I don’t think that this is true. Not only are there plenty of first generation Americans whose families recently came from other countries and who speak a second language in their home, but many long-time Americans also speak second languages. Not to mention the fact that English is the official language in the larger cities in India, and is the 1st language of MANY Indian people. India has a HUGE population. So I don’t have the data, but I bet the figure for English polyglots is higher than you think.
