“The English language is the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Bilingualism is an interesting concept, and to many native English speakers, a foreign one. Whereas most of the world ends up learning at least one second language, those from English speaking countries tend to only know English. No matter how many French or Spanish language courses are taken, they do not usually stick. For many people, English is the language of the future, the language of business, and the language of the globe. For others, English is the mother tongue and often the only language that one can speak. The experience of the language between native speakers and learners couldn’t be more different. I don’t think native English speakers realize how unique their experience with language is, and it ties directly to the fact that we speak English.

Throughout history there has always been a lingua franca, or at least a small handful of languages that help people across a large area communicate. For much of human history, this language was Latin. With its roots in the Roman Empire and later on continuing with full vigor via the Catholic Church, Latin had a good run. What may have been its downfall was the fact that it was too successful. Ancient Latin changed, developed, and transformed into the Romance languages we know today; i.e. Spanish, French, Italian, etc.

The spread of English has been a more recent phenomenon, having become the lingua franca over the past two hundred years or so, intensifying its consolidation after the world wars and becoming the world’s sole lingua franca after the fall of the Soviet Union and communism. Credit where credit is due, the ubiquity of the British Empire was the first stepping stone. If London hadn’t been so successful in promoting this language and culture, the United States would not have been able to pick up the torch and continue the spread.

Because of the success and reach of the English language, it is fairly uncommon for people from English speaking countries to be bilingual. The interesting thing here is how common our lack of language skills is. Even in Canada, where French is a mandated subject, most Anglo-Canadians have only the most basic of French language skills. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, though they are on the doorstep to Europe, bilingualism continues to be uncommon. As I am sure many know, most Americans are not even remotely bilingual. The most experience we have with a foreign language is the one year of Spanish in high school. Meaning that we never really learn the language, and end up mentioning for years that it would be great to pick it back up and really learn, but in the end we don’t.

For our lack of multilingualism, we do often get ridiculed in online discourse. For many people, especially Europeans, who often end up becoming trilingual or at a very minimum bilingual, the frustration is understandable. It seems that Anglos across the world are just lazy and are unwilling to learn. However, this is not a fair assessment, I think there are a few points that show the uniqueness of those who speak English as a first language, and may explain why we are by and large not multilingual.

For starters, we don’t really live that close to the rest of the world. The UK and Ireland are separated from Europe via the English Channel, which is not irrelevant. England and her daughters have always always been somewhat distinct and set apart from their neighbors. One can travel the length and breadth of the British Isles with only English, making any second language only relevant for those engaging with the continent. And as history has shown us, they set their sights across the Atlantic.

North America is big, like really really big. I find that most Europeans don’t really understand this scale. The United States is more than twice the size of the European Union and Canada is even bigger than the US. Meaning that, whereas Europe is a mix of many different countries and cultures all right next to each other. North America is a sea of the English language and Anglo culture. Quebec serves as an island of Frenchness, but it really is only an island. The US does border Mexico, and in many ways there is a mixing of cultures in the American southwest, but I find that similarities here are often overstated. For those with a hispanic background, Mexican culture may be an excuse or a reason to invest in Spanish language skills. However, for those with no connection, the border may as well be an impenetrable wall. Latin America has a fairly minor reach on global culture and economics, meaning that it is much more advantageous for them to learn English, rather than the other way around. Not to mention that you really could not thrive in the US with only Spanish, English is a nonnegotiable.

After taking a little swim across the Pacific we find our sister nations of Australia and New Zealand. Australia being literally its own continent and one of if not the largest island in the world. New Zealand being about the size of the UK, if not a touch bigger. Here we see the same pattern a third time. Other nations are far away from Australia and separated by water, making cross cultural pollination difficult. Not to mention that the cultures in south east Asia are different and very foreign to Australia, making any cultural mixing that much more difficult. All this to say, that even when just looking at Anglo countries, we are truly hundreds of miles away from the next point where we would need to speak a foreign language. The reality is that for most native English language speakers, we just don’t have the need or even the opportunity to learn and use a second language.

My previous point is definitely more related to geography, and to be fair we see similar patterns in other places. Latin America historically was also fairly poor at being bilingual, and this too makes sense. You can travel from Mexico all the way to Argentina with only Spanish, making it pretty easy to not learn another language, maybe only Portuguese being a worthwhile addition. In China too, they continue to struggle in the bilingualism department, probably because they are also a huge country with over a billion people who all speak Mandarin Chinese. Geography has an impact, but with English there is another dimension worth mentioning, that is English’s role as a global language and medium of communication.

English is the current lingua franca, this is a well-known fact. Historically, schools and higher learning institutions may have taught their pupils Latin, French, or German to communicate with the wider world, but today it is English. In places like Switzerland, where they have four official languages, it is often the case that children learn English before they learn a second of the national languages. English is being taught as a second language across the entire globe, because otherwise nations will be left behind. When a German company goes to a conference in Japan, the language they will all use is English. When a student from Finland wants to study for a semester in Italy, this semester will be in English. There are billions of people who have never been to an Anglo country and who will never go to an Anglo country who are still speaking English and will use English throughout their life.

The universality and dominance of English often makes it really hard for us to actually practice another language. Even if we take a German course and learn it on Duolingo. Once a German gets even a whiff that we are not native speakers, they will switch to English. It has been my experience that while people love it if you can say the basics in their language, because their English will be so much better than our mastery of their language, it just makes the most logistical sense to stick with English. If someone’s native language was say Hungarian, there might then be a lot of pressure to learn German, because they aren’t able to switch to your language. But with us English speakers, this pressure does not exist.

There is one more element that I find quite fascinating about English. If someone only speaks Swedish, for example, then as far as their cultural and linguistic mind is concerned, the world is only as big as the Swedish language. Their bubble of knowledge and experience is somewhat limited. By learning English, they can then experience global culture and be tied in with everything that is happening around the world. Sure, they might not have in-depth knowledge of certain cultures. It would take this person to learn Dutch to be able to dive into the Dutch world, but they would at least be able to hang with the whole world. For us Anglos, we have the rest of Anglo culture available to us, and because our native language and the global language are the same, we are also able to experience global culture without any extra effort. We don’t necessarily have to use a second language when doing anything abroad.

There is a small negative to this. I find that many people, especially Europeans, think they know and understand Anglo countries, especially America, a lot more than they actually do. Being able to watch English language television series and speaking the language well is cool, important even. However, this doesn’t mean that they are a good judge or arbiter of what things are like on the ground. Without having spent a good amount of time in a country, it would be foolish to think that one understands them or could fairly judge why they do what they do. Just because one knows English, does not mean they have a valid, or frankly worthwhile opinion on America.

Here is where I would like to get on my soap box, if the dear reader will indulge me. As native English speakers, especially as Americans, we are very privileged in the fact that we don’t really have any necessity to learn a second language. In the current year, we are able to do pretty much everything with only English. This really is a blessing for us and we shouldn’t forget that. That being said, it is truly life changing to become bilingual. We might have a read on global culture, but diving into the specifics of different nations still escapes us. Having spent a better part of my life learning German and getting to know the German speaking world, it has been a pleasure beyond what I could have possibly imagined. It is only by learning the native language of a place that you can really come to terms with who these people are and what makes them tick. With English you can learn a lot about a nation, but it is only with their native language that you can really learn who they are. If anyone has any interest in learning another language, I say go for it. You will not regret it and your world will only get bigger. Since the Tower of Babel, God has given each nation their own language, and each language and culture is unique and worth exploring.

“There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.” – 1 Corinthians 14:10-12 (KJV)