Learn the set list in 48 hrs. (Reactors Cut)
Added 2021-11-15 23:04:28 +0000 UTC
Comments
That's cool that so many people are at least bilingual. Most Americans can only speak english. The next language that gets learned is mostly Spanish/Mexican. but I would guess we have less than 50% of our population that speak more than I language. Thanks for explaining all of that.
Ryan Feeley
2021-11-20 05:35:22 +0000 UTCYes, it's in many European countries it's mandatory to learn English in school from an early age. People in the Nordic countries, such as Finland, are generally bilingual and sometimes trilingual, since the standard curriculum contains English plus a third language (usually French, German or Spanish, although they seldom become 100% fluent in any language besides English). In upper secondary school or high school, some choose to learn a fourth. People in countries like Switzerland don't really have a choice, I think, since Switzerland is a bilingual country (French and German). ⠀ Finland is special, in the sense that it's been a part of Sweden historically and still has a big minority of people with Swedish as their first language. Until not too long ago, it was mandatory to learn Swedish in Finland and hence, many Finnish people speak at least three languages. And yes, you're right about us understanding each other's languages to a certain degree. I think the fact that we as Europeans are keen on understanding each other and are subjected to each other's languages often enough makes us better at picking up foreign words and expressions. ⠀ Then there are all the similarities between different languages: someone who speaks Russian understands Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Bulgarian and other Slavic languages to a certain degree, someone who speaks Spanish should understand Italian and some Portuguese and, while people in Denmark and Norway were never forced to learn Swedish in school, like the Finns were, they understand Swedish perfectly, since these languages are so grammatically and lexically similar (basically just three different dialects of one Nordic language). Danes DO tend to switch to English when talking to Swedes, just to make communication go smoother (to a Swede, Danish sounds like someone attempting to speak despite having just swallowed a lamp and a tiny, angry kitten).
Anechka
2021-11-19 22:16:45 +0000 UTC
