people when they visit my country,they say such stupid things like "where are the lions"or"you can speak english"we actualy have 11 official languages.i understand 10 and speak 8.
137523
It sounds like Michael Jackson you are describing.
634343
These numbers does prove that you can't speak english.
262868
The latest figures I can find are for 1995 (first source), when there were 15,000,000 speakers out of a population of 131,000,000, i.e. about 11%.  The population is now about 168,000,000, so if the proportion has stayed the same, that would make it around 19,000,000 speakers.\n\nThe second source (2005) gives a figure of 17,000,000.\n\nThe third source gives a rough estimate of 5,000,000 speakers in urban areas whose English is good enough to work in call centres.\n\nIn all cases these are almost entirely second language speakers.  However as English is used in nearly all universities as the language of education and as the working language of government, the civil service and the millitary, the level of ability should be high amongst the better educated.
419630
Because this is a diverse country which I think is one of the charms of living in the United States. Our country doesn't have an official language so technically, they can speak whatever they want. It just so happens most of the country speaks English. \n\nAnd most employees can speak at least limited English, although it may be harder to understand. Rather than getting upset about it, take it as an opportunity to help their conversational skills.
554051
You did not say where...but if you are talking about the USA, there are thousands of schools that teach english as a foreign language...you will have to be a bit more specific.
202233
It is not only rude, but also bad business to have some employees speak a second language at work. Many workplaces have an "English-only" rule. In your case, I believe you have a legitimate complaint. The conversations in another language may actually involve you. If it's a personal conversation that they don't want you to understand, they need to have it on their own time. It has no place in the office. Multiple languages in any workplace is divisive. I think you need to bring this up to management.
193566
I agree with you. There are too many here that do not speak any word of English but yet they want to live here and be treated like citizens. I believe if they want to be taking serious about wanting to be here as Americans then they need to learn the English language as well. It is good to keep speaking your home language but you need to speak English as well
555962
We have become a lazy country - now expecting everyone around the world to understand our language. We used to study foreign languages in high school. Does anyone care any more? \n30 years ago I lived in Japan for awhile. Speaking  English was a ticket to a promotion for most people in business. To graduate high school a student had to study English for 6 years. Classes in English were available to adults who would stand in lines to sign up. \nI get angry when people emigrate here and don't want to learn our language but I also feel that we should be studying other languages to communicate better when we travel or do business abroad.\nWe need to
532213
I GOT YOUR BACK, BRO!\n\nThe peopel who founded this country spoke English, so why can't those who come here from other countries learn to speak OUR language? They sure don't bend over backwards to accommodate us when we visit their countries. Or even if we move there, we have to learn THEIR language if we intend to survive.\n\nThey have TESL classes in our schools (Taking English as a Second Language)...IT SHOULD BE THE FIRST, LAST AND ONLY LANGUAGE...IF you are an American!!!!!!!
613866
I speak 5 of the eight languages I've studied at university and I'm pretty good at Korean too.\n\nAfrikaans, Dutch, Xhosa, Zulu and English, I speak fluent.\nLatin, Northern Sotho and Pedi, I've studied.\nKorean I picked up from the locals in Seoul.
333519
I would like to start a petition that ALL foreign languages be banned on our legal documents. After all, English is our national language. I don't see any other country that goes so much out of their way to make it easy for "guests" to get along.\n\nPersonally, I'm sick of it! During hurricane season our own governor came on TV and did one broadcast in English then another one right afterward in Spanish.  That made me so mad! \n\nBefore anyone starts on the whole issue of "everyone needs to be aware in an emergency"...well, if you are going to live in America, you can at least learn enough of the national language to get by in an emergency situation.
311520
Maybe Switzerland can get along with multiple languages, but we cannot.\n\nThere is one important thing to remember about English:  next to Spanish, it is the easiest language in the world.  If you can't learn English, you have a severe learning disability.  Try learning a truly difficult language, like Chinese, Hungarian, or Czech.\n\nEvery document on which our nation was founded is written in English.  The language of international business is English.\n\nCan you imagine what a huge step backward it would be for significant portions of our population to be incapable of communicating in English?  Imagine how ridiculous we would appear in the eyes of the international community.  Little school children, from Rio de Janeiro to Bratislava learn English with ease.  We'd be the laughingstock of the world.\n\nI can just imagine the jokes:\n\n"Hey, what do you call someone in the U.S. who dresses well and speaks perfect English?  --- A tourist!"
254405
You talk because you don't know what it is to be in their shoes. They sure have rights; they have families here then it becomes a problem. that is why they protest. You talk like this because you need education. Your illiterate. You don't even make sense, just because they don't talk English. Please. R you for real. Just because they don't talk English doesn't mean they cant protest. Go back to school!!!!!!!!!.Some people come here because they need money urgently for their hungry families and school is the last thing they could think off in a situation like this.
267643
This was really an interesting question. I actually went and looked up in google and one fo the sites actually had info on languages other than the official languages.  Check this one out........ http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=NO
575788
If you can't learn the language of the country your residing in then get out, the government cannot accommodate every language on earth, and that is stupid to expect that, to costly and would slow down the government process, and no it is not discrimination that's why governments like Mexico, France, and  all nations expect people to learn their language. If that's discrimination then every country on earth is guilty.
53861
yes, I am certainly aware of this.  North America has 3 countries, Central America has 7 or 8 (I forget) and South America has a lot (sorry, I don't know that either).\n\nI think it all started when we called ourselves The United States of America.  We were already refered to as "The Americans" in England (since England owned the Colonies and Canada I guess it was a natural thing to do when refering to the far away place.  We still do it today when we speak of African or Asian people).\n\nIt isn't so much of a stereotype as it is a missuse of words.
586026
YOUR LANGUAGE IS SILLY!