We Shouldn’t Be Surprised Most Americans Never Learn A New Language
Learning can be difficult, but there are ways to make it easier.
While wandering around Quebec City a few years ago, I noticed that my lack of ability to speak French was preventing me from interacting with the locals and enjoying my time in the Canadian province.
So after several attempts of failing to speak French, I asked myself: “Why is it so difficult for me to learn languages?”
It’s an interesting question that got me thinking. Perhaps it’s because I only speak English, and so I naturally only liked to visit countries that speak the language. Or maybe it’s because I was lazy, and that I never put in sufficient amounts of time to see fruitful results when attempting to learn a language.
No matter the reason for learning a language, many people across the world will know that language learning isn’t easy. Quoting an article from the Daily Texan:
“Only about 15–20 percent of Americans consider themselves bilingual, compared to 56 percent of Europeans surveyed in 2006 by the European Commission”.
