Some tables have soul and some not

Dear Inna, I am really confused by your linquistic toughts.
If the most Americans speak no foreign languages how can
they 'often speak (in) different languages'? Do you mean
Mexicans, Chinese, Russian, etc. who live in America?
BTW I assume that they also share in this remarcable 'status' of being Americans.
What is the point of the fact, if it is a fact, that 'quite
a few ...speak at least three foreign languages'? Why three
and why at least? Why should they anyway when English is the dominant language in the whole world?
I know some Americans who live in Holland for more then
10 years but are not able to construct one decent sentence in Dutch. In Holland, you know, even kids speak English.

Regards,

I meant that though they all speak English, they do not quite understand the meaning of what others are saying.
In New York City area there are many very well educated people, some of them even speak "rare" languages- Dutch, Danish, Catalan etc. But if you take rural South Carolina or even rural New York state than yeah, the educational level can be very low. America is a land of contrasts.

Nandric:

"I know some Americans who live in Holland for more then
10 years but are not able to construct one decent sentence in Dutch. In Holland, you know, even kids speak English."

Tha fact that almost all dutch people speak english is the reason the Americans there never learn Dutch. It's the same way in the military, no matter what country you are in, the people you deal with speak english.

Once in Germany I enrolled in a German language class. The professor, a german, said the first time the class met that he would never speak a word of english in the rest of the classes. He didn't, and I learned more german than I ever thought I would. It is amazing how fast you can learn a language when you have no choice.

Regards, Nandric: Nikola, my reply concerned what constituted a "typical" American. As one of the two examples of that peculiar species hanging around on this thread I felt it somewhat incumbent to respond, it had nothing to do with the "tall people" comments. You were simply faster to the enter key. Had I read your post first it would have been modified. Please accept this clarification.

Meanwhile, our forum brother was having a jolly good time with those "American" jibes. It was percieved as such and offense was neither received nor intentionally given in return, as have been none of the other comments concerning the U.S. Ethnocentrism and its sources are easily understood, sometimes justifiable and rarely a thing to be ashamed of. There is little reason to become upset about it. Rational discussion and amicable resolution of differing views should be attainable considering the obvious educational attainment of (at least) the other participants.

In the spirit of give and take and in good humor, In_shore could tease to an even greater degree and still be a welcome guest in my backwoods Kentucky home. We could trade a few ripostes, perhaps down a few and spin some vinyl on my beat up old rig while watching the deer pee in the front yard. Yeah, In_shore, right here/right now, being an American is good. There have, though, been times---

Think I'll sit the next few out. Bash away.

Peace,

Dear Rok2id, You are 100% right. Anyway according to my own
experience. I learned better German in 4 months in Austria
then in 4 years at school. I learned Dutch in 4 months and
was able to follow lectures at the university in Utrecht.
I was forced to learn Dutch very fast because the Dutch refused to speak German with me. But they prefer to speak English with English speakers so the English speakers get
no chance to learn Dutch. There are even schools and faculties with English as official language. When I come to Holland the students at high school learned 3 foreign
languages (German, French and English) while gymnasium students learned also old Greek and Latin. At present only at gymnasium is so much attention for the languages. The Dutch phylosophy was that in a 'open economy' like Holland
but also because of the Dutch spirit of comerce the languages are very important.

Regards,