English monolinguals

Are you an English speaker and monolingual? I'm curious as to why you are monolingual? Never had a chance to learn another language? Not interested? Not worth the trouble? Not useful? Too time-consuming?

I taught another language for awhile. I'm not really qualified to teach the language I taught, but I speak it, so I was asked to teach it. Most of the monolinguals in my class had really poor reasons to learn the language-only the polyglots and people who were motivated did well even though everyone learned and most people said that they had a lot of fun in my class. Probably too much fun, imo.

While I am pleased that everyone learned something, I am still baffled by people who take lessons in a foreign language because they feel they have to/should do so. I think this is a really bad reason to study a foreign language.

So, if you are technically monolingual, what would spur you to take a class in a foreign language, and what language would it be?

I'm technically no longer in the category you're polling, but given that about a year ago I had zero interest in language-learning, I think I still have a reasonably fresh perspective on this.

At least in the US, there are two big reasons for staying monolingual. One, a perceived lack of benefit, and two, a perceived high cost.

Outside of the states along the southern edge of the US where there has been significant Mexican immigration, most people here have nothing to gain from learning a language. They operate in a monolingual environment, and they speak a very widely-spoken language, so even if they travel to a foreign country, they'll never be so helpless that they'll wish they were bilingual.

On top of that, bilingualism is seen as something extremely difficult to obtain. The dominant hegemony in the US is that language is only easy for children, and that after a certain point in the development of the brain, language acquisition shuts off, and it becomes an entirely different (and much more difficult) process. It doesn't help that in high school we're forced into language classes we don't want to take. Classes are structured in ways that make language acquisition difficult, so people observe the root of the hegemony first hand and decide it's fact, and they stay monolingual for good.

So for me specifically, last April I decided to learn Japanese. I'm being motivated by a desire to live outside the US for a few years, and while at first I was thinking of living in another English-speaking country, I later discovered (sort of by accident) that there are rather painless ways to learn languages, so I decided to redirect my desire to Japan specifically. Neither of the above points apply to me anymore, since I know I'll make use of Japanese, and since I now know that while learning a second language takes a lot of work, it is neither impossible nor painful.

Side-note, I wouldn't take a class. No offense meant, I just don't think they're very helpful. I've learned more Japanese in 4 months than I learned in 2.5 years of high school Spanish.

Oh, I should note that if my timeline seems a little funny (started in April, "4 months), it's because I spent several months learning Kanji before beginning actual language learning. I consider the 'several months' as catching up to where I started with Spanish, since I already knew the Spanish alphabet.

<<At least in the US, there are two big reasons for staying monolingual. One, a perceived lack of benefit, and two, a perceived high cost.
>>


Not just perceived, but actual.


<<On top of that, bilingualism is seen as something extremely difficult to obtain.>>


Correctly.


<<he dominant hegemony in the US is that language is only easy for children, and that after a certain point in the development of the brain, language acquisition shuts off, and it becomes an entirely different (and much more difficult) process.>>


They're right about that.


<<Classes are structured in ways that make language acquisition difficult, >>


And a class that would be structured so as to make language acquisition less difficult would make the realization of the class too difficult.


<<so people observe the root of the hegemony first hand and decide it's fact,>>


It is a fact.

I'm not even going to get into a debate with you about that, demotivator, but I just want to ask how you made it to the forums without actually reading the website first. You realize I'm practically reciting Antimoon's theories, right?

I'm monolingual and always will be. It would take a huge effort to become bilingual (i.e. be equally at home in both English and another language), and there's no reason for it here, perhaps 50 miles south of Boyntonville.

In order to be truly bilingual, I guess you'd need at least a decade of total immersion? Even then, even if you achieved near-native fluency, you'd probably still have a noticeable foreign accent.

I spoke another language until the age of 5, and prompty forgot it upon moving to the States.

I took three languages in high school, mainly for fun, and never achieved any proficiency in any of them (2 hours a week, you know...).

I didn't have time to take a language in college and my degree ultimately didn't require one. It would have been nice, but it just didn't happen.

The only reason I am attempting to seriously learn a language now is because I'm dating someone who basically doesn't speak any English (my language), and it would be nice to have an actual conversation without struggling to remember conjugation rules from twenty years ago or having to forgo certain topics from a lack of vocabulary.

I think it's silly for people to be snooty about monolingualism. There are a few people who learn other languages out of curiosity, but the vast majority learn it out of expedience -- it's going to get them something. And if your personal situation doesn't put you in any need of another language, there's no reason why you should feel bad about not shelling out the money or the time to learn a rather esoteric skill just so snobs won't look down on you. The human brain is wired for language, but there isn't some kind of quota you have to hit, after all -- you aren't an intrinsically better person for speaking twelve languages, or a worse person for only speaking one.

<<Are you an English speaker and monolingual?>>

Yes, although recently I've been actively studying foreign languages (mostly portuguese) as a hobby.


<<I'm curious as to why you are monolingual?>>

I never had a real interest before.

I also don't know how to play piano, or scuba dive. Should I?

"The dominant hegemony in the US is that language is only easy for children".

You aren't using "hegemony" correctly. "Conventional wisdom" would be a more appropriate term.

Guest, you're right. The term was introduced to me in a pretty specific context, and after looking it up, it seems to have a slightly different connotation than I thought. Now I feel silly. :) Thanks.

Achab, I was a US army brat born in Germany, so I spoke fluent German until I was five -- it was better than my English. I am currently working on my Spanish.

I have studied two languages in addition to my native English. I think, like most people in the U.S., the fact that I am monolingual is because I have not had sufficient time, opportunity, or incentive to maintain and strengthen my knowledge of those languages. As a result, only a couple years after leaving my University, I can remember little more of Spanish than "gusto helado en mis pantalones" (private joke) and "semper ubi sub ubi" and "senatus populusque romanorum" in Latin. Actually, I remember more than that but not enough to be fluent in either of the two languages. I have been known to practice Latin verb conjugations when drunk (-bo, -bis, -bit, -bimus, -bitis, -bunt). This fall I’ll have an opportunity to brush up on my Spanish, but I doubt this will make me fluent in the language.

It'll be -bo, -bas, -ba, -bamos, -ban. ;P

Hmmmm...It is funny. If all people do like Americans, and nobody study English as foreign language, this language wouldn't be so important.

English is only 5th Worldwide, after Chinese, Spanish, Hindi and Arabic.

The power of English is the secondary speakers. If they read this post and they don't want to study more English, the other four big languages would have an important benefit.

If there are not secondary speakers in the World, English will be less and less important, and then, Americans will study languages...

Uriel,

Future I, Active
Future active is a tense which, unsurprisingly, refers to something which has not yet happened. The endings are fairly basic, and follow fairly regular rules - however, the future endings used in 1st and 2nd conjugation differ from the endings of 3rd, 3rd-io (not a typo!), and 4th.

For example - "amo, amare" (1st conjugation) would be

Ama-bo - I will love
Ama-bis - You will love
Ama-bit - He/She/It will love
Ama-bimus - We will love
Ama-bitis - Y'all will love
Ama-bunt - They will love