Am Amurikans dumbererer

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

From today’s email, some comments were made about Americans intelligence and our view of the world. One of the items pointed out was that, while most Europeans speak two or more languages, the average American usually only speaks one language. There is a good reason for this. Besides sharing a common language throughout the US and most of Canada, our ancestors used the distance from family to lose their old languages and heritages. At one time there were no French Americans, or Dutch-Americans (although Pennsylvania Dutch weren’t Dutch) and so on. Regardless of ethnicity or national origin, we were Americans. While many already spoke English when arriving on our shores, those immigrants from non-English speaking countries strove to learn the language or the land. In doing so, their children soon lost, or never developed, their parents mother tongue. Nor did their parents want them to. They tried to assimilate and worked hard at it.

Today, we still have immigrants from around the world, and for the most part, they either already speak English of some sort, or are learning. The only bad part? Too many of them come here illegally and fee we have to learn their languages. The funny thing is, I’ve been around a lot of those immigrants in the past and find that the ones that want to succeed here, or who have, speak English.

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I’m confused. Is your point that we shouldn’t be bothered to learn any other language because we’re Americans, or is it that Europeans should be fluent in English before they dare to criticize Americans?

3

It depends, honestly. I know that in the 19th century, there were areas in Michigan who still regularly printed German language newspapers for years. When immigrants moved here and stayed in the cities, they’d often form neighborhoods (Little Italy, Chinatown, etc.) where they could speak their own language and be around those who are from the same culture as they are. I mean, obviously as the generations went on, their descendents became more and more Americanized. But it’s not like there weren’t immigrants who actively tried to keep the languages of their homeland.
My mother’s family (on her father’s side) came to the US in the 1860s (the rest came later) from Germany. My grandfather would still occasionally speak in German to my mom… in the early 1960s. My mom’s generation grew up knowing only a handful of phrases, but knowing German lasted a full century for that family in America.

I personally think it’s a tragedy that more Americans don’t know a second language. Sure, it’s a minor-league tragedy; cancer, war in the middle east, etc. all trump it. :wink: But I still hate being monolingual.

4

Who are all these illegal immigrants who think you should learn their language?

I suppose kids who are brought here at 10 years old should be tossed into the school system without the benefit of bilingual educators. I mean, it’s THEIR fault they are here and don’t speak the language after all. And think of all the damage they’re doing to YOUR life!

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Amurikans am dumberer den cheezburger wif dumsaus onnit.

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Since this is a thread discussing an SD column, I’ll move it to Comments on Cecil’s Columns.

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The truth is that things are just as they always were. First-generation immigrants, legal or otherwise, aren’t usually very good at English, but their children are. (A hundred years ago, New York’s “No spitting” signs were in ten languages.)

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I think Cecil summed it up pretty well right there. Most Americans don’t know a second language because they really don’t need to know a second language to go about their daily business.
It’s arguably kind of stupid to waste your time becoming fluent in a language when you never interact with other people who speak the language. The vast majority of Americans will never run into someone who can ONLY communicate in French, Swahili, or Japanese. (I know a little Spanish because I work in health care and have occasionally interacted with migrant farm workers from Mexico, but how often does the average American in a place like, say, North Dakota need to converse with Mexican immigrants?).
Since the trend in Europe seems to be towards integrating the individual countries into a larger unit for political/economic power, I wouldn’t be surprised if within a few generations Europeans are more like Americans in this regard.

Even if you argue that knowing a second language is good intellectual stimulation, one could argue that it would be more meaningful to your intellectual development to use the time studying a subject like science or philosophy in your native language than to invest that time becoming fluent enough to read children’s books in another language.

Of course, I am just pointing that out to give time to the other viewpoint. If you think being bilingual is important to being well-rounded, knock yourself out. Nobody’s going to try to stop you!

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If you want good food, travel 500 miles south.

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To Tennessee? (Since if you drive 500 miles south of Chicago, that’s where you would be).

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The ability to speak more than one language is a function of culture, not intelligence. Otherwise one could argue that having multiple languages in a fairly small geographic area is pretty stupid–if Europeans were as savvy as Americans they would adopt a common language.

The fact is that Europeans know more about America than we know about them. One reason is that their news features U.S. events whereas our news barely even notices major news in other countries unless we are engaged in military action there (and often not even then). Another reason is that movies and TV shows made and set in the U.S. are viewed globally, whereas it’s pretty rare for a foreign movie to get noticed here (Slumdog notwithstanding).

It should also be noted that while many Americans can’t identify the U.S. on a map of the world, the U.S. is also the world’s leading source of innovation in science, business and the arts. So if most of us are dumb as rocks, a few of us more than make up the difference.

Also, people I’ve met from other countries have not impressed me with their knowledge of history or science or even world events. If Americans take the prize for ignorance, it’s a hard-fought contest.

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Country style steak with creamed potatoes and gravy. Green beans and corn cooked with pork fat. Breaded fried yellow squash. Cornbread and biscuits. Tall glass of ice cold tea. A heaping pile of banana pudding topped with meringue. Mmm…

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Well – too much fat, starch and sugar for my tastes, but thanks for clarifying!

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Maybe they meant southwest, and 1,000 miles. That would put you in Louisiana or Texas, both of which I hear have terrific food (for America). Southeast might make it Georgia, which has Paula Deen…

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That’s pretty much what I was going to say. I’ve travelled extensively in Europe and the average person I’ve met there isn’t all that knowledgable about what the United States is really like. I think it cuts both ways.

Ed

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Louisiana is about 900 miles due south of Chicago – and I do like that Cajun food!

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Secnded. I’ve never met anyone from any other country who particularly impressed me with serious intellect, and that’s a group which includes professors and exchange students, as well as visiting Germany. Young (high school or college-age) Germans in particular were rather ignorant buffoons, and saw the world in such black-and-white as to make most fundamentalists stand agog.

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Are Europeans smarter than Americans? No, of course not.

But a lot of Europeans like to think so, and interestingly, a lot of AMERICANS like to think so, too!

Why would they think that? Well, I see TWO big reasons.

PART I:

I suspect a big part of the reason is the type of culture each side gets to see from the other side of the pond. That is, what do Americans get to see of European culture, and what do Europeans get to see of American culture?

When you look at it that way, well, no wonder Americans think more highly of Europe than Europeans think of America! The “culture” we export tends to be aimed at a mass audience- fast food, lowbrow movies, et al. Hence, Europeans think we’re the land of Disney, Jim Carrey, Britney Spears, and McDonald’s. There’s plenty of high culture in America, but that’s not what Euros get to see, for the most part. They get to see the popular crap, and may assume that’s ALL we have to offer.

Meanwhile, only a small amount of European culture makes its way to the USA, and most of it tends to be highbrow and sophisticated. THAT leads a lot of Americans to assume the Euros as a whole must be more sophisticated.

Pssst… they’re not! European television has some wonderful stuff that you won’t often see here, but it ALSO has a host of stupid, embarrassing shows that make Jerry Springer look like “Masterpiece Theatre.”

And the avant garde French films you see at the downtown art-house cinema may be wonderful, but they are NOT typical of what ordinary French folks are watching.

Part II:

Europeans think they’re smarter than Americans because THEY know a lot about the USA, while most of us Yanks know precious little about Europe.

There’s much truth to that. But…

First, a huge percentage of what Europeans think they know about the USA is absurdly wrong.

Second, what do they expect? Historically, powerful nations have always attracted more interest and attention than weaker nations. We have been the most important nation in the world (militarily, economically and culturally) since the 1940s, and for that reason, people around the world have HAD to pay a lot of attention to us. It’s a safe bet that few Europeans knew or cared much about us in, say, 1840! And why WOULD they? We were a minor nation! In those days, Americans undoubtedly paid far more attention to England and France than they paid to us, and that’s only natural!

Will we ALWAYS be the most important nation on Earth? Who knows? We may be passed out by. Let’s say China emerges as THE economic, cultural and military supwerpower. If that happens, Europeans will pay a lot more attention to the Chinese than to us, and then Europeans will be as ignorant about the USA as Americans are about Europe.

Then BOTH sides will be equally “dumb,” and it won’t matter any more.

19

Thanks for pointing this out. Recent research has shown that the current “batch” of immigrants (of all legalities) is learning the English language at just about the same speed, and with the same patterns, as pretty much any other group of immigrants we’ve had. First generation immigrants struggle with it, their children learn it and are mostly bilingual, and by the third generation, the grandchildren are fluent in English and may not even speak the original language.

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I’m powerfully reminded on Lily Tomlin’s routine as Ernestine, the AT&T operator on the 60s show Laugh-In.

When someone called in to complain about the AT&T monopoly she replied, “We don’t care. We don’t have to.”

That sums up the entire argument in seven words.