One of Five in U.S. Speak Language other than English

One of Five in U.S. Speak Language other than English at Home

A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau states that from 1980 to 2007 the percentage of non-English speakers grew by 140%, while the nation’s overall population grew by 34%. People who speak Spanish accounted for the largest numeric increase (23.4 million, or 211%) during the 27 years under study. Of those who speak a language other than English at home, 62% speak Spanish. The next most common languages are Chinese, French or French Creole (Haitian) and Tagalog.


Link:

http://www.allgov.com/US_and_the_World/ViewNews/One_of_Five_in_US_Speak_Language_other_than_English_at_Home_100430

Hate those fucking Mexicans.

In the world it's the opposite: according to the Swedish linguist Mikael Parkvall, 5 of 6 person don't understand English at all — except a few international words such as "OK", "thank you", "welcome". 5 of 6. That's 83% of the world population.

Yet, according to the same linguist, about half of the world population can speak at least one language other than their native one. But, for most of these people, their additional languages are not English.

A preview of the English translation of Mikael Parkvall's book is available here: http://www.wmjasco.com/limits/LLPreview.pdf

An Esperanto translation of the chapter of his book questioning the perception of English as the one and only foreign language can be read here: http://www.liberafolio.org/2009/ciuj-ja-scias-la-anglan-1/