[Gay State Conservative]

"On a Lufthansa flight a German next to me told me, in perfect English, that Americans are too lazy to learn a second language, and that most of Europe speaks many languages - including English."

That German was partially correct and partially wrong.He/she was wrong in that Americans aren't too lazy to learn a second language...it's that we don't *need* to.English is,today,the most important language on earth...BY FAR.

OTOH,he/she was correct to suggest that Europeans tend to learn more than one (one almost always being English) because it's a small continent featuring a number of fairly important languages...*including English*.

A hundred years from now Chinese may well be the world's most important language...but today it's ENGLISH!

[jospehm20]

I agree. When I lived in Germany, I took vacations and drove through 4 countries with 4 different languages in less time than it takes to go from Austin to El Paso. I do find it galling that a guy from a country where the average worker puts in over 400 hours a year less working time than the average US worker would call Americans lazy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time