I hope no one finds this offensive; I just want to get some insight into why so many native English speakers never study another language seriously. I know the same happens with the Japanese and Chinese. At first I thought the reason for that group for not learning English properly was due to huge linguistic differences but after chatting up with some Filipinos/Finns you realize quite swiftly their level is amazing -with the caveat that in the Philippines English is an official language-. Anyway such stark differences between Finnish and English -according to the foreign service institute, Finnish and Mandarin are equally hard- lead me to think the problem for the two Asian giants I named has to do more with ideology/poor educational systems than anything else. I think it's up to politics; on the other hand, using a purely practical approach, one could think people whose native language is English feel no need to learn really easy languages like Spanish, since English has become quite a long time ago the lingua franca of the world. Anyway I can't help but think that mastering a foreign language is such a worthwhile goal that regardless of the practical use you can give to it many more people should do it for the pure pleasure of knowing two different worlds.

It's always interesting to me when I meet Europeans in South America and they're like "hey your Spanish is good but Americans suck at languages"....and I'm like "sure but we have more Spanish speakers than Spain".

If you live in the US and speak English, there are almost no economic motivations to learn a foreign language. Even if you live in the Southwest you can live and work perfectly well without knowing a word of Spanish. Plus the educational system doesn't push anyone to learn more than the absolute basics of Spanish or French.

I think it's good to study foreign languages and I dabble a bit as a hobby, but I get why people don't feel motivated to do so.

Finnish is a Finno-Uralic language and not Indo-European, so English has more in common with languages like Farsi or Hindi than Finnish. I've looked at it briefly and it seems..
.challenging to say the least.

I finally started learning a non-Indo-European language a few years ago (Japanese) and it'll be a lifelong project.

I wouldn't exactly call Spanish easy honestly. It is spoken super fast (so is Japanese) and this due to lots of open syllables and a five vowel system found in both.

Portuguese is spoken like 5% slower but that 5% makes a massive difference in the ability to understand native speakers speaking at native pace.

Pretty much this. I think that it is a great idea to study languages, but English is the common tongue of Europe, and the closest thing in the world to a common tongue for business.

I was in the Fort Lauderdale (basically Miami) area a few days ago and it would seem like Spanish might actually be a requirement there

Easier to invade and foist English on the natives.

WE had a choice here In Canada take French or Accounting. I went with accounting

Though I do think a second language should be mandatory. Wish I had learned spanish

There is also a challenge that English speakers have which is that lots of people know English.

I met this Colombian guy who few years ago whose English was great and he prided himself on having great English despite never having travelled to an English speaking country. He got that way by watching American movies on TV-- which is how lots of Latinxers learn English. But it can be hard to gain the needed language skills when everyone you would want to communicate with already knows English.

I'd like to learn German because I've been in enough situations where I'm the only English speaker with a group of Germans, but they just speak English for me. It's embarrassing for me which is why I want to learn it, but how much effort would I need to put in to flip the playing field on them? Lots.

The notion that Spanish is a requirement to live in Ft. Lauderdale is a bit of a stretch. It's 19% Latino according to the last census.

I would go so far as to say it's already the de facto language of international business.

I was only there for 12 hours so I'll blame my sample size in that case.

I'm in Colombia right now and noticed this which I thought was great. The whole rest of the remote control is in English except for the "futbol" button.

You all seem to agree the rationale for not learning another language is driven by the mere fact that you won't get much from it in terms of economical advantages if your native tongue is English. I totally understand that, plus the fact that learning a foreign language, and aiming to B2+/C1 (a pretty good level), requires an immense effort. Anyway it still puzzles me why even among intellectuals/cultured people -let's take the example of the USA- learning at least a foreign language doesn't seem to be relevant at all. As I said before I understand you don't get much from it economically speaking; but that's just half the picture. The same way you read writers like Wilde, Cervantes and Dostoevsky you can learn a foreign language: both activities demand a massive amount of time, yet people read prose and poetry way more than they learn foreign languages.

This example couldn't be better. There's a such a huge difference when it comes to X person from a western country learning English vs a native English speaker learning a random language: exposition to your target language since an early age makes everything easier, something that native English speakers almost always lack.

And even if you learn French to a good level you'll have Quebeckers making fun of you every time you utter some sentences. There's something sinister about it, and I have to say I have many friends from that province. They always tell me how a ''Squarehead from the ROC -rest of Canada-'' tried to speak French and failed miserably.

I doubt non-native English speakers are learning languages they have no practical use for at a much higher rate than native English speakers. If the main international language was French, there would be a lot more native English speakers who spoke French.

Seems like the easieast answer and I have no reasonable objections to it. Let's apply the Ockham's razor principle and the settle this haha.

solomente ascribir en espanol

I took a couple years of high school French and unfortunately paid little attention. Managed something like 52% each year. I hate my high school self for being such an idiot. I can make myself understood in French if pressed. Had an interesting conversation once with a couple police officers and a gas station attendant outside Paris when I was a passenger in a Volvo with New York plates and I was the only one who spoke any French at all.

I'm old now and not as sponge like as I was when a youth so learning a new language now is a real chore. Might give Spanish a go again because my wife speaks it and so do all sorts of people here in Orlando.

Saw Jared Diamond speaking in Mexico once and he said the if you are bilingual you are less likely to get Alzheimer's. Anyone know anything about that?

I think it may reduce your risk and/or delay the onset of cognitive decline much like exercise and eating well reduce the risk of other ailments and delay physical decline.

Met a French girl today who speaks perfectly fine Spanish but fairy lousy English who wants to speak English with me for practice. I don't really mind since I'm lazy but we have a shared language that we could use instead of fumbling.

I've also met French who refused to speak English. One French girl was in South America and she spoke neither English or Spanish but liked to party and if you wanted to talk to her you were speaking French.

Te esta intentando explotar si solo quiere hablar en ingles para practicarlo, jaja. She should just speak the strongest common language and spare you the pain of miscommunication. if she wants to practice her English I heard there are people who can help her: teachers. Anyway it's up to you whether you wanna play along with her plan or not ;D.

Estoy de acuerdo pero a veces hago lo mismo.

Pero si hablas de español tu nivel es mucho mejor que el de ella. A veces hablo en español con gente que no lo habla bien, pero es porque siento que los ayudo un poco y pueden expresarse. En el caso que me comentas la francesa casi no puede hablar, una cosa cosa con la que es bastante dificil de lidiar, y peor teniendo una lengua comun.
Btw, viajas por latinoamerica a menudo?

Probablemente su espanol es mejor que yo. Los hablantes de otras idiomas románticos-- incluso los franceses--tienen un aventaje sobre hablantes de inglés.

Este es mi cuarto viaje a América sur y he visitado México algunos veces también. Si seas Argentino, vivía en Buenos Aires por casi un año en 2009, pero más reciente he estado viajando en Colombia y Perú.