Seems to me that your wife snidely sidestepped the issue of speaking multiple languages and how it’s beneficial rather than addressing the issue.
I’m a monolingual myself, I just don’t see how it could possibly be a point of pride.
Anecdotal evidence only, but having spent some time studying in the UK and Paris, it was pretty clear the all other things being equal, Europeans tend to know more languages than their American counterparts. All of the German, French, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish etc. students in the programs I attended spoke at least 2 languages, in some cases more. I dated a German girl who spoke 4 languages. On the other hand, the American students rarely spoke anything other than English.
And I don't buy the argument that Europeans "need" to know more than their home language. That may be true for a Dane or someone from some other small country. But, a German, Frenchman or Brit could quite easily go through life without learning any other languages.
Knowing more than one language is always a good thing, IMO.
Apparently the discussion wasn’t about the benefits of multiligualism as much as it was about the smart multilingual Europeans vs. the dumb monolingual Americans; if so, the poster’s wife addressed the issue as she saw fit.
Personally, I don’t think people are stupid if they don’t learn more than the language that is required for general communication in their home country; I would wish everyone spoke and wrote their native language as well as they were able, and that their country’s sign language would be required, too. A universal sign language would cover even more people than would a spoken language.
Most Canadians only speak English; do Europeans think they’re as dumb as they think we are? So far, I’ve not heard any other country disparaged as we are for this lack of communication skills. I like knowing other languages but haven’t had much opportunity to use what little I know.
Then, by all means, go out and buy that “learn a language” software and smarten yourself up, if that’s how you define intelligence.