Monolingualism overshadowed by Multilingualism
There
are estimated to be far more bilingual and multilingual speakers in the world
than there are monolinguals. But are there nations really monolingual? If for example we take a look at the United Stated States, a nation that has forced others to speak their language, our first thought would be that Americans have no interest in learning another language because English is well-established as a lingua franca. Well, the United State Census Bureau has reported that twenty percent of Americans speak other language than English. Moreover, research shows that close to eighty percent of the planet population speaks 1.69 languages.
I go back now to my previous question: Are there nations really monolingual?
I go back now to my previous question: Are there nations really monolingual?
Jorge,
ReplyDeleteFor the reasons you outlined I don't believe that there are any monolingual nations, especially because I don't consider any human being to be monolingual. As I mentioned in my blog, each of us speaks different scripts within each language we speak; some scripts include social which we use with friends, formal scrips that we use with co-workers, and a combination of these, say at a work social.
Jorge and Robin,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a great notion that no one is really monolingual. However, if I look at my parents of an older generation of Canadians and they really only can navigate in one language. They rarely worked in the workplace and now, being retired, only use their English language in their social network which includes family and friends. Therefore, I would say that they are monolingual citizens in a multilingual country. They are definitely in the minority!