hdansin I think it is something of a travesty that we native English speakers aren't encouraged/don't have to learn other languages.
foreign language learning is compulsory in American middle school and high schools, still I believe.
I think once a kid does their time they forget everything the learn because there is no more continued immersion.
unless I fell asleep and it disappeared from high schools like physical education? (it's possible I fell asleep).
Foreign language used to be compulsory as a freshman in college but I know that is no more.
I'm pretty fluent in Spanish and can have conversational Spanish because I'm regionally privy to a large Mexican population to immerse in, and always have. The Mexican spanish has a little in common with the Castilian (Spain) they teach in schools and different in many respects.
I agree with you inasmuch that Americans really aren't steered in that direction by peers, edu, gov, etc but I know many people (usa) that are self-motivated and are learning Japanese, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian etc on their own. But you are right, around the world, learning English is huge and not the inverse here.
hdansin As a writer of English I do love my mother tongue but it is really a bastard child of Latin, German, French etc. And learning other languages has taught me it's deficiencies and utter absurdity. Very cool to see the diversity of on here.
oh yeah, Mother Tongue is borrowed, used, appropriated, stomped on, hyperbolized, watered-down Mutt of all the languages you mentioned but I love it. I love American English. So many swirling worlds underneath it, so many subtexts, and all of that subverted and changed once you travel 200 miles in any direction.
You had a beautiful response, I could not help but to respond.
