[KarlInOhio]

One pet peeve I have is when “sophisticated” Europeans lament that Americans don’t travel or speak another language. I asked any of them if they realize just how geographically huge the USA is. I asked any of them if they realize just how much there is, for any type of traveler. They of course don’t.

The same topic came up when I was in Europe. They were asking about why so few Americans knew any language other than English. I asked them how many different languages were spoken within 1000 km of where we were in Switzerland at the time. There were some arguments about where the limit actually hit, but came up with about a dozen and a half, not counting language variants like Provencal or Catalan. I said that other than some ethnic neighborhoods it was all English within 1000 km from where I lived (1001 km is where I hit Quebec, thus that limit).

[cyclotic]

Plus, English is the international language of commerce. I used to work for a global company based in Switzerland. Any international meetings, no matter where they took place were conducted in English. We don’t really need to learn another language.