# Monolingualism: the US v. Britain.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537>\
**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:** 4\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/61 "2010-06-28T00:55:56Z")

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> [@DMark](#):
>
> Speaking of which, I am always amazed when foreign Dopers post, and rarely if ever can you tell English is not their first language! Kudos!
> 
> While I speak German fluently (and voted accordingly), if I had to write all of my posts in German, well - it wouldn’t be pretty. Germans would understand me, but there would be some huge grammatical errors flying all over the place.

My Bulgarian is like this too. But I didn’t learn it in a classroom! (Mostly.) I learnt it from daily life, and from my kids laughing at me when I fucked up.

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/62 "2010-06-28T01:57:45Z")

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> [@scifisam2009](#):
>
> That’s partly because Hungarian is a language imported to Earth by insane aliens with forked tongues. 😃

The pronunciation of the language isn’t that bad (although they sure love their vowels there.) The grammar is just so different, as it’s not an Indo-European language, so it’s hard to find a reference point if your background in languages is French, Spanish, German, etc. Still, it’s a pretty neat language and I don’t think it’s that much harder than the Slavic languages, with all their crazy declensions and consonant clusters. A British friend of mine ended up in Hajdunanas (Eastern Hungary) to teach English and was able to become fluent within two years, mostly since he had no choice but to speak Hungarian or keep to himself. It’s quite amazing, really. Native speakers mistake him for a local all the time. Apparently the only accent he has is an Eastern Hungarian accent.

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**Author:** ![notsoheavyd3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85e7bf/32.png) [@notsoheavyd3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notsoheavyd3)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/63 "2010-06-28T04:15:31Z")

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Yet another American who speaks english only. Actually my dad was an italian immigrant but decide not to speak italian in front of us, well except for when he’d slip and swear. (Another case of him wanting his kids to be Americans.) I did have experiences at university where apparently they thought the figurative shoving of a language down your throat was a capital idea. It did not go well.☹

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**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monolingualism-the-us-v-britain/544537/64 "2010-06-28T15:17:13Z")

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I’m British by birth but American by residence (and avocation, it must be said). I voted as a Briton, since I learned my second language there.

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