15 Things About Life In The U.S. That Are Super Not-Normal

[smirkymonkey]

https://www.cracked.com/pictofacts-1461-15-things-about-life-in-u.s.-that-are-super-not-normal

Take this w/ a grain of salt, but it is kind of interesting. I'll post a few, but the rest are at the link...











More at link.

[Rhiannon12866]

1. Americans expect everyone else to speak English

And chances are that they do. In other countries, schools teach other languages at a young age. When I visited the USSR, most everyone i met born after WWII was fluent in English. I made friends with a girl that I sat next to at a performance, but it was rough going. Obviously she spoke Russian, and she was also fluent in Italian and French, but she kept apologizing because she "didn't finish" her English! I struggled to remember what I could of my HS French!

[virgogal]

3. The US and Canada are primarily English speaking countries.

Europe has many countries in a smaller geographical area and many languages are spoken.If the USA was divided like Europe is many more people would be bi-lingual or tri-lingual.

[Rhiannon12866]

4. Well, I was in the USSR, which was not a small country

We needed to take a plane to get from one city to the next, it was either that or take a train overnight. And we visited the school in our small "sister town," 2 1/2 hours up in the Caucuses, and there was an English class - elementary aged children.

[virgogal]

8. If the USSR wanted kids to be taught English,they were taught English.

I wish the USA did that but I guarantee that if the Federal Government wanted a second language taught here there would be an uproar over what language should be taught.

[smirkymonkey]

6. I studied a little bit of French in High School and studied in Vienna, Austria in college for a

semester where I learned some German (and it is helpful to learn a language when you live in a country where they speak it), but I regret the fact that we are not taught foreign languages at an earlier ages in this country.

The daughters of the family I lived with in Austria spoke fluent German, French, Swedish, English and Spanish (their mother was Swedish). I was so envious of their fluency. I read some of their English papers and I was amazed at how harshly they were graded when they wrote and spoke English better than most native English speaking teenagers in this country. The standards over there are very rigorous.

Anyway, whenever I travel to a foreign country, I always try to learn the basics in their language. The Czech and Hungarian languages were the most difficult so far, but I think they at least appreciate it when you try.

[hunter]

12. 80% of my neighbors are bilingual. 40% of them don't speak English at home.

My next door neighbor's children are trilingual. Their language flows to accommodate whoever they are talking to. Their grandmothers mostly speak their native languages and just a little English. The children are fully fluent in English, especially at school. Their parents wouldn't settle for less.

That's the way it's always been in the U.S.A..

My wife is bilingual, I'm not. Two of her grandparents were immigrant farm workers who spoke Spanish but raised their children to speak English and excel in school.

We speak English at home.

I seem to have trouble learning languages, but maybe it's because I'm lazy. Also, as a white guy, people tend to switch to English automatically to accommodate me whenever I'm around.

Our children took Spanish in high school and college. One took French as well. These language skills are useful in their work and travel.

I grew up in a place that was 99% white, affluent, and English speaking. My wife and I might have raised our own children in a similar environment but made a very deliberate choice not to.

There's nothing admirable about xenophobia and unilingualism.

[Dagstead Bumwood]

2. Meh, I took three years of French in high school.

And, like the old joke goes, all I can do is count to twenty and ask where Monique is.

[Rhiannon12866]

5. I still remember how to ask where the library is!

[smirkymonkey]

7. It is difficult to learn a language if you don't have the chance to practice with native

speakers. In Europe, it is so easy for them to travel to other countries that speak the languages they are trying to learn, so they can pick up the accent and have a chance to practice with native speakers.

Over here, we don't have the opportunity to travel abroad as much, so even if we learn a foreign language, if we don't practice speaking it, we lose the facility. I took a few years of French in High School and only a semester of German in Austria, yet I speak German much better than French because I had to use it to get around and I heard it spoken constantly.

[Dagstead Bumwood]

10. Yes, being from small-town Ohio

I never had much chance to speak it. And, out of high-school I went to work and never had a chance to take build on my high school language experience in college (which came later, via night school). And, I've never made it to France, or even Quebec.

Were I to learn a language now, just from a practical standpoint, it would be Spanish. There are more Spanish speakers in this country every day, and I can't converse with any of them unless they ae bilingual.

[Major Nikon]

9. I can order a beer and ask where the bathroom is in 5 languages

What else do you really need?

[sakabatou]

11. I took 3 years of Japanese

I can't read it and I can barely write it.