[Foundation-l] A simple question on languages.

[Mark Williamson]

Speaking "at least a little bit of English" is far from functional
bilingualism. You being able to buy toiletries is not the same as them
being able to read a press release.

Mark

On 25/01/2008, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 25/01/2008, Mark Williamson <node.ue at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Okay, still, that stands. A lot less people are bilingual than you
> > seem to think.
>
> What are you basing that on? Speaking more than one language isn't
> particularly common in English-speaking countries, but elsewhere, it's
> pretty much standard in my experience. I've done a fair bit of
> travelling and speak only English and a little German, and I've have
> rarely had much difficulty - an enormous number of people in the world
> speak at least a little English. People whose native language is only
> spoken by a small group will very often (probably almost always, but I
> don't have the evidence to back that up) also know the language that
> is more widely spoken in their country.
>
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