A new study from the Pew Research Center published this week found that the US is way behind most European countries in terms of learning languages in school. And if not purely to get you a job, there are other tangible pluses to learning an additional language. There is also another imperative to discourage monolingualism in the US — the growing empathy gap. Experts point to a lack of certain life experiences as being responsible for generating a profound lack of understanding between groups.
This sign hung in a Philadelphia sandwich shop in , which provoked controversy - it was eventually removed from the window Credit: Getty Images. That American number is on the rise , though. The real solution might lie at home, however. The main way to address monolingualism is to simply start teaching foreign languages earlier in school. To comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Capital, please head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.
If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. Language Matters Language. What is the future of English in the US? So why does everybody learn English today? From coast to coast, hundreds of different indigenous tribes existed long before the first settlers and their civilizations and languages were as developed as those arriving from Europe.
So, why did everyone start speaking English? As you most likely know, the English were not the only Europeans colonizing the Western Hemisphere. In a short period of time, the United States had become the number one destination for immigrants all over the world. The first reason we speak English is that the British crown won territory and dominated among the early settlers.
The areas of the US where more distinctive dialects of English are spoken are well away from the halls of power, and their speech is typically stigmatised in the general culture.
New York and other money cities — and the great universities — have maintained versions of English not so different from the educated British standard. And that is an important reason American English is still American English. Money talks, and the US has not seen it as worthwhile to declare a distinct language, since American English, like the American dollar, is the current dominant force globally, like it or not.
If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. Words' Worth Language. Share using Email. By James Harbeck 15th July Britain and the US share a common language — but English is spoken and spelled very differently on each side of the Atlantic.
James Harbeck finds out why. Why does American English take such liberties with our common tongue? The accent has changed more in British English than in much of American. Brave new world American English changed too.
Does your car have a boot and bonnet or a hood and trunk? Tongue twisters Early British visitors sometimes wrote of how little the dialect changed from place to place as they travelled through the colonies. The first time was when William the Conqueror invaded Britain in the 11th Century more on the history of English here , bringing Norman French with him and making it the high language — used in schools, courts, universities, and the upper classes.
The second time was during the s, when it became super trendy in the UK to use French-style words and spelling. This is why British English has more linguistic similarities to French than American English, and also explains our obsession with croissants. Webster wanted American spelling to not only be more straightforward but different from UK spelling, as a way of America showing its independence from the former British rule.
He dropped the letter u from words like colour and honour — which had developed from the French influence in England — to make them color and honor instead.
He did the same to words ending in -ise to make them -ize , because he thought American English spelling should reflect the way it was said.
Sometimes there are differences in American English that make no sense to speakers of British English — like when Americans remove entire verbs from a sentence. For some reason this is very common with words for food: examples include coriander British, derived from French and cilantro American, derived from Spanish , and aubergine British, derived from Arabic and eggplant American, so called because it looks like a purple egg.
0コメント