Race and IQ

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Comments

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

The vast majority of Americans speak one language. And the immigrants often understand more than it pays to let on...

[cinnamontoast.livejournal.com]

Americans are not completely dim. The majority of Americans speak one language because of a lack of linguistic diversity and as a function of geography. Unless you live on the border of French speaking Quebec or Spanish speaking Mexico, there is no place except a bilingual home environment to practice and use a second language. As you age, you lose the ability to use the second language you are taught in school.

It's damn expensive to travel to a place to use a second language on a regular basis and most Americans don't have the money to do so. The insistence on painting non-bilingualism as stupidity or being uneducated is terribly classist. This is NOT the case in Europe (and beyond) where people of all classes are able to move freely between linguistically diverse regions without the need for air travel or extended travel times.

Look up the other places in the world that are as linguistically isolated due to geography as the United States - Like Canada (where bilingualism hoovers around 17.5% (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/10/24/census-language.html)) - And you'll find the same sort of stats. The United States weighs in at 25% (http://www.gallup.com/poll/1825/about-one-four-americans-can-hold-conversation-second-language.aspx), with the highest numbers of bilingual individuals (43%) in the age range of 18-24.

There. I had to get that out of my system.