Why is speaking more than one language is more common in Europe than the US?

Three things: age, employment level, and familial background. If a European is a student, in a managerial position, or, has a mother tongue (language of one’s parent) different from the one spoken in the country of residence, they have a greater chance of speaking a second language.

Why do some countries have more than one official language?

Why do countries have more than one official language? One of the main reasons is to integrate different groups of people, either at the country’s founding or later in their history.

Why can’t Americans speak more than one language?

Call it the consequence of geographic isolation, a history of economic and cultural hegemony, or a culture of rugged independence, but for better or for worse, America has a foreign language education deficit. As of 2001, 26 percent of American adults were capable of holding a conversation in another language.

Which country citizens speak the most languages?

Which country has the widest linguistic diversity? Papua New Guinea is the most multilingual country, with over 839 living languages, according to Ethnologue, a catalogue of the world’s known languages.

What country speaks more than one language?

Indonesia is the largest bilingual country in the world, with approximately 200 million people speak more than one language. Indonesians speak about 746 different languages. Javanese has the most users in terms of native speakers (about 80 million).

Is it rare being trilingual?

What Is Means to Be Trilingual. Some estimates put the total of the world’s trilingual speakers at just over 1 billion people. That’s 13\% of everyone on Earth! Being bilingual (speaking two languages) is much more common, though still somewhat rare within English-speaking countries.

How many Americans speak a language other than English?

This article is more than 3 years old. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 60 million Americans speak a language other than English at home. But more than 231 million speak only English at home, and don’t know another language well enough to communicate in it.

Where are people least likely to be able to speak any foreign language?

Countries where people are least likely to be able to speak any foreign language are Hungary (65\%), Italy (62\%), the UK and Portugal (61\% in each), and Ireland (60\%).

Does speaking two official languages make you more employable?

Speaking both of the country’s official languages – English and French – helped people earn more, even if they weren’t required to speak that second language on the job.

How many people in Europe can speak more than one language?

Just over half of Europeans (54\%) are able to hold a conversation in at least one additional language, a quarter (25\%) are able to speak at least two additional languages and one in ten (10\%) are conversant in at least three.