Many of us born and raised in the US are strictly monolingual. And we happen to be in the minority. Statistics show that more than 50% of people in the world speak more than one language. A vast majority are bilingual, while a significant proportion are polyglots. However, in the US, about 75% of Americans are monolingual in English. But where exactly does this disparity come from? Why are Americans so much more likely to be monolingual than people from other countries?

A Systemic Problem   

The primary cause for the monolingualism predominant in American society is the lack of need to learn a secondary language. America is so large, and developed, that many Americans often live their whole lives in America. They have no need to live abroad, and job postings may take them from one end of the country to another, but never overseas. As such, they don’t often face a situation where they need to know a second language. And while America doesn’t have an “official” language, it’s quite clear that people here expect you to know English if you’re going to live here. 

But that doesn’t quite address why a lot of the rest of the world is multilingual. Why do these countries go to such lengths to learn a secondary language, instead of just sticking to their native tongue?

The White Collar Language

Many non-native-English speaking countries teach their people English due to the standards that the language is held up to. There is a perception that English is a very valuable language to know, often more valuable than other languages. This may be because English has emerged as the unofficial language of business meaning that fluency in English is often a requirement for white-collar professionals.

This creates a pressure for those who desire to advance in white-collar jobs to learn English—either in school or through supplemental online language classes or courses. 

Furthermore, many schools and education systems in countries whose native language is not English have mandatory English classes which their students have to take as these institutions generally aim to prepare their students for white-collar professions.

Therefore, English language classes are highly prized and emphasized, and in some instances, all subjects are taught in English as opposed to their native tongues. This creates a bilingual cohort that is fluent in English as well as in their own mother tongues which they use to communicate regularly with their family and friends. 

Starting Young

Many countries also have foreign language requirements in schooling to graduate. Some schools have second language requirements, while some may even have third language requirements. In Europe, for example, students start learning a foreign language from as young an age as six years old. And over 20 countries in Europe make students learn two foreign languages for the duration of at least a year. These help students to develop a foundational knowledge of a few foreign languages.

This is in stark contrast to schools in America; 16 states in America do not have a foreign language requirement to graduate high school. Those states which do have foreign language requirements, only require students to complete 2 years to graduate which is not enough time (under the academic rigor of these courses) for students to gain proficiency, or even be conversationally adequate, in these languages. 

Cultural Diversity

On the other hand, residents of some countries develop an understanding of more than one language because those countries have more than one official language or speak more than one language. For example, Singapore has four official languages—English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil. Africa has eleven.

Similarly, residents of India and Africa usually learn to speak three or more languages as different regions of the country speak a different language, and people who travel between these regions or work in a different one to where they grew up, eventually learn to speak the other language.   

Born That Way

Additionally, some lucky people may be born effectively multilingual. This is because some languages are highly similar to other ones, and a working knowledge and understanding of the one language can often allow you to get the gist of the other one. While the knowledge transfer may not be perfect, it may be enough to facilitate conversational fluency.

European languages like French, Italian, and Spanish are close enough to each other that native speakers of the one language can often get away with understanding the other language—although accommodations for pronunciation and syntax have to be made. Unfortunately, English does not seem to be one of these languages which means native-English speakers have to put in more effort, much like many non-Europeans, to learn a foreign language. 

Bottom Line

There is a systemic reason why Americans are more likely to be monolingual than the rest of the world. But multilingualism is increasingly becoming prized as a business skill as the world becomes more and more interconnected. Spanish, Hindi, French, Arabic, and Mandarin are all languages that millions of people around the globe speak. It may be worthwhile to pick up a foreign language textbook and try your hand at learning a new language.