# Monolingualism: the US v. Britain. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 25, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537 "2010-06-25T21:36:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/21 "2010-06-26T01:13:19Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > Well, that’s a different question, too. (Although it would be an interesting poll, maybe I’ll do that one next.) I really only wanted to get a very loose idea. > > How many people in Wales actually speak Welsh? I am far from an expert on Wales, but I once spent three days in Aberystwyth and didn’t hear a single bit of Welsh. And I was listening for it, too, as I was very curious about it. Saw plenty of it on the signs, though. (Same as when I was in Dublin, saw lots of Irish on signs, never actually heard it spoken.) Having lived in Aberystwyth, you have to know where to go. Welsh-speakers often use English in public with strangers. I worked in a Welsh-speaking institution in Wales, and I knew several people who weren’t very comfortable speaking English (though they were pretty fluent at reading / understanding). It’s a lot like Spanish in California. Some places omnipresent, some places you need to know where to go, some places absent. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/22 "2010-06-26T01:19:35Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > eta: in retrospect, my poll working was kind of weird. By “one language”, I mean “English”. _shrug_ Well, shit, I’m American and I only speak Swahili,\* and I chose the first option. \*Except that I learned to type this post by rote just for this occasion. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/23 "2010-06-26T04:38:57Z")
I learned French in grade school, but I no longer retain the vocabulary. I tried to learn Spanish in college, but had even worse problems with vocabulary–I made an A in the class, but lost it within a few weeks. I really don’t know how you guys do it. I thus counted myself a monolingual American. Still, I love translating stuff. But I need a dictionary. (I’m still better than Google Languages, at least.) ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/24 "2010-06-26T08:07:02Z")
British. I speak English and French. I can just about converse in Latin, and make a decent stab at reading Greek. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/25 "2010-06-26T08:55:26Z")
American. I only speak English. I used to know a surprising amount of Spanish but now that I’m out of school it’s faded away. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/26 "2010-06-26T08:55:58Z")
English, can get by in France and speak some Cantonese. Not sure if that really qualifies as speaking more than one language or not but that’s how I answered anyway. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/27 "2010-06-26T12:53:01Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > How many people in Wales actually speak Welsh? I am far from an expert on Wales, but I once spent three days in Aberystwyth and didn’t hear a single bit of Welsh. And I was listening for it, too, as I was very curious about it. Saw plenty of it on the signs, though. (Same as when I was in Dublin, saw lots of Irish on signs, never actually heard it spoken.) According to Census records, just over 20% speak welsh fluently and of those, about 80% use it daily. It’s mostly used in preference to english in the rural north - not many people from the south speak it fluently or use it regularly. Everyone in Wales learns welsh at school - my girlfriend is from south wales and her welsh is about as good as my school french. Her daily conversation is often peppered with welsh words though, such as ‘give us a cwch’, meaning ‘give me a cuddle’, and ‘beth yw’r amser?’ meaning ‘what’s the time?’ ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/28 "2010-06-26T14:33:13Z")
I’m British, and am still just about fluent in German. On the few occasions when I get the chance to use it, I’m surprised at how easily it comes back to me. I also speak a little Spanish and a tiny bit of French and Slovak. I was actually surprised at how few non-Latino people in Florida spoke Spanish - I stayed with a friend there and I’d kinda assumed that everyone would have basic Spanish, but mine was better than hers. > [@Superhal](#): > > Europeans are well known to be able to speak many different languages. They generally consider this normal and start doing it when they are young. Weekly, monthly or yearly trips to neighboring countries is normal. Chinese, Japanese, and Americans are famously monolingual. If you want to redo the poll, you might get more interesting results if you divvy up the European section into speaking 2, 3, 4+ languages. Nah. When it comes to a poll like this, it’d be stupid to include Brits in with other Europeans - English is used so much as a second language all over the world that an awful lot of Europeans do learn it, though not in the numbers you seem to assume. In any case, I’d say that the non-British Europeans on _this_[ board all definitely speak more than one language. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/29 "2010-06-26T15:22:49Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > …‘give us a cwch’, meaning ‘give me a cuddle’… Can I adjust your spelling? Not to be mean, but only because the way it’s written here is kind of funny. “Give us a cwch” is “give us a boat.” “Cwch” (pron. kookh) is “boat,” “cwts” or “cwtsh” (pron. cootch) is “cuddle.” ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/30 "2010-06-26T15:28:30Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Can I adjust your spelling? Not to be mean, but only because the way it’s written here is kind of funny. “Give us a cwch” is “give us a boat.” “Cwch” (pron. kookh) is “boat,” “cwts” or “cwtsh” (pron. cootch) is “cuddle.” I think perhaps a lot of Welsh people are mis-spelling it then, having been influenced by English spelling, because I often see Welsh friends of mine use the word cwch (or sometimes cwtch) and they definitely don’t mean anything to do with shipping. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/31 "2010-06-26T15:40:11Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > I can still speak some Spanish, though not nearly as much or nearly as well as I used to. I’m going to check “American, one language”, because I’m certainly not fluent in Spanish. The poll didn’t ask if you were fluent in more than one language, though. IMHO, you don’t need to be fluent to be able to claim you speak to languages, because you can speak/write/read a language fairly well and _still_ not be fluent in it but if you can read a newspaper, hold a fairly complex conversation, and write an essay in that language of course you speak it. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/32 "2010-06-26T16:11:23Z")
Only English well, but I can do tourist stuff in Spanish and a little bit in French. I can say hello, thank you, and order a beer in Mandarin. I have also butchered German and Japanese. Icelandic and other Scandanavian languages were a bit too much, and in Wales I just took to throwing Scrabble tiles with vowels out the window to the needy. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/33 "2010-06-26T16:13:29Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > I think perhaps a lot of Welsh people are mis-spelling it then, having been influenced by English spelling, because I often see Welsh friends of mine use the word cwch (or sometimes cwtch) and they definitely don’t mean anything to do with shipping. Maybe they were asking for a paddle? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/34 "2010-06-26T17:09:27Z")
I’m Canadian and speak one and a half languages. ---
**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/35 "2010-06-26T17:38:02Z")
American; I reluctantly answered one language. When I was growing up we used a few French words at home but the one summer when we stayed with my grandparents, they would talk to each other in French and I wouldn’t understand any of it. I also watched an educational program for learning Spanish but didn’t get a good understanding of grammar from that. Since becoming an adult I’ve studied Ancient Greek, Japanese, Thai, and East Cree but although I wasn’t by any means lost in Thailand, there’s no way I could write an essay in any of these. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/36 "2010-06-26T18:00:03Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Can I adjust your spelling? Not to be mean, but only because the way it’s written here is kind of funny. “Give us a cwch” is “give us a boat.” “Cwch” (pron. kookh) is “boat,” “cwts” or “cwtsh” (pron. cootch) is “cuddle.” Fair enough, don’t speak the language myself ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/37 "2010-06-26T18:11:02Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I’m Canadian and speak one and a half languages. I’m Canadian; my native tongue is English; I can read road signs and cereal boxes in French; I speak fairly fluent Esperanto; and I’m really interested in Japanese. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/38 "2010-06-26T19:07:40Z")
What’s the cutoff? I’m American and I speak enough Spanish to have a simple conversation with a sympathetic listener, but I certainly can’t eavesdrop or have a complex conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/39 "2010-06-26T22:15:00Z")
English. I grew up in a bilingual household (child of immigrants/refugees) speaking English and Kutchi (a dialect of Sindhi from the Indian subcontinent). I also speak fluent German, French, Hindi and Urdu. Can hold a conversation in Gujerati, and can just about get by with Spanish, Italian, Dutch, and related languages. I’m the weirdo exception basically. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/40 "2010-06-27T01:34:29Z")
I am an American speak two languages but it almost doesn’t really count because I’m a first generation American - my parents are immigrants and spoke a non-English “home language” (Mandarin Chinese). I have failed in my duty to pass this on to my own children, who are monolingual, not counting pony tricks like counting to ten or saying “hello”, “goodbye”, “thank you”, and “Happy New Year / please give me a red bag with money in it” in Mandarin. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537.md?page=3)