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Let me start this by saying I speak 4 languages, some better than others.
The complaint with many people's posts are that we speak no other languages.
Which one do you want? Economically and politically we must speak ALL languages or we have failed in the eyes of the non-English speaking world. Are we not allowed to visit a place in the world without spending a decade studying the language? You don't think that's asking a bit much?
We are arrogant if we do not speak Chinese, but are curious enough to spend the money to go and experience their culture. We are arrogant if we travel to Paris in order to experience their (and possibly our own history), but do not spend 13 years studying the language beforehand.
The fact of the matter is we are linguistically isolated. It's VERY easy for the French to learn English, they can speak to English speakers any time, they can watch English TV, they watch our movies in English with French subtitles. They are completely surrounded by the language through their entire life, we get maximum 1 hour a day 3-5 days a week in order to learn. They are arrogant for expecting us to be on equal terms in language ability.
It's like showing a guy who's never seen a car before how to change the starter on an engine, then wait 10 years with not ever seeing a car again and expecting him to remember how to do it. We do not have access to the other languages as easily.
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"Smite the rocks with the rod of knowledge, and fountains of unstinted wealth will gush forth." - Ashbel Smith as he laid the first cornerstone of the University of Texas
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