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Old 05-31-2012, 10:09 AM
 
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,606 posts, read 55,756,157 times
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The thread about bilingualism got me thinking, what nations are the majority of the population - let's say 70% and above - only able to speak one language? I don't count knowing a few phrases from high school French 'knowing' a second language, obviously being able to converse at a basic level.

I think the main ones would be:

UK
New Zealand
Australia
Canada
US
Ireland
China (there are the dialects, but the majority only know Mandarin)
Japan
S.Korea
Most of SE Asia except Malaysia
Bangladesh
Most of the Middle East
I believe most of Sub-Saharan Africa is at least bi-lingual but I could be wrong
Russia
Eastern Europe
Italy
France, mainly older generations
Spain
Most of Latin America


Actually the more I write, the more I question the assertion that most people in the world are multilingual. It seems monolingualism is indeed still dominant. Sure more and more people are learning English but at such a basic level I wouldn't really say they are able to speak it. This also applies to India.

I'm monolingual, but I think it's silly for English speaking nations to be 'singled out' as if everyone else is fluent in two or more languages.
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Old 06-01-2012, 08:27 AM
 
Location: Gatineau, Québec
26,758 posts, read 37,644,012 times
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Regarding Canada's official languages (English and French) :

65% of the population knows only English

15% of the population knows only French

17% of the population knows both French and English

3% of the population knows neither French nor English

(rough numbers but I am pretty close)

Of course, this only involves the official languages. Many Canadians are bilingual in one official language, plus another non-official language. So you have Canadians who know English + Arabic or Italian or Inuktitut, or whatever, but know no French. You also have Canadians who speak French + Arabic or Vietnamese or Innu, but who know no English.

All in all, I am not sure if this means that a majority of Canadians are bilingual (regardless or whether they are official or not). Probably not. The native English and French speaking groups (most of whom would not know a non-official language) are still pretty big chunks of the population.
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Old 06-01-2012, 08:43 AM
 
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,606 posts, read 55,756,157 times
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^ Still perplexed as to why Francophone Canadians were not made to learn English in school. Aren't Anglophone Canadians supposed to study French? It would be much to their benefit, even if you think it's English imperialism - as to better connect with the rest of Canada, North America and now, the world.
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Old 06-01-2012, 09:39 AM
 
Location: Gatineau, Québec
26,758 posts, read 37,644,012 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Trimac20 View Post
^ Still perplexed as to why Francophone Canadians were not made to learn English in school. Aren't Anglophone Canadians supposed to study French? It would be much to their benefit, even if you think it's English imperialism - as to better connect with the rest of Canada, North America and now, the world.
Francophone Canadians do study English in school - it is mandatory. It's just that many don't learn it well or don't have many opportunities to use it.

As incredible as it may seem, it is basically the same reason (excuse) that English-speaking people in most countries use for the fact that they speak only English: "usefulness", either real or perceived.

As mentioned previously, the French-speaking part of North America where you can easily get by using only that language is huge, and extends across a distance roughly equal to that between Paris, France and Kiev, Ukraine.
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Old 06-01-2012, 10:28 AM
 
Location: Toronto
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Trimac20 View Post
Actually the more I write, the more I question the assertion that most people in the world are multilingual.
There aren't really any particular stats on that I don't think -- a lot of the estimates "for the entire world" are based on studies by scholars etc., but I've seen claims ranging from some saying one half, to some saying three quarters. (Probably depends on your definition of fluency?)

At the very least it seems most studies mention one half of the world. Also, I believe Europe is one half or so (who are capable of speaking more than one language).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack View Post
Regarding Canada's official languages (English and French) :

65% of the population knows only English

15% of the population knows only French

17% of the population knows both French and English

3% of the population knows neither French nor English

(rough numbers but I am pretty close)

Of course, this only involves the official languages. Many Canadians are bilingual in one official language, plus another non-official language. So you have Canadians who know English + Arabic or Italian or Inuktitut, or whatever, but know no French. You also have Canadians who speak French + Arabic or Vietnamese or Innu, but who know no English.

All in all, I am not sure if this means that a majority of Canadians are bilingual (regardless or whether they are official or not). Probably not. The native English and French speaking groups (most of whom would not know a non-official language) are still pretty big chunks of the population.
I've heard it pegged at about one third to 35% of Canadians who can speak more than one language (in general) but I'm not sure of the sources. Most stats on bilingualism typically refer to bilingualism with the two official languages.
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Old 06-01-2012, 10:36 AM
 
Location: Toronto
3,295 posts, read 6,986,330 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Trimac20 View Post

I'm monolingual, but I think it's silly for English speaking nations to be 'singled out' as if everyone else is fluent in two or more languages.
English-speakers are usually singled out because we often take for granted and expect people from other languages to learn ours, while we often don't really feel or have any of the same kinds of "pressure" (economic etc.) to go out of our way to learn others.
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Old 06-01-2012, 10:52 AM
 
7,704 posts, read 12,538,544 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack View Post
Francophone Canadians do study English in school - it is mandatory. It's just that many don't learn it well or don't have many opportunities to use it.
That's funny. About 10 years ago, I used to live in Canada and they most certainly weren't learning English. It wasn't even a class.
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Old 06-01-2012, 11:10 AM
 
Location: State of Transition
102,052 posts, read 106,836,948 times
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Why include only S Korea, and not N Korea?

Non-Russians are about 40% of the population and are bi- or multi-lingual. China similarly has many Indigenous peoples who are at least bi-lingual, but I suppose the Chinese are so numerous, they'd be at least 70% of the population.

Bi-lingual: Guatemala and Bolivia (both majority Indigenous), and Paraguay. Also the Amazon region (including Peru and Ecuador) and the Andean region (Quechua-speaking and Spanish). It's debatable what percent of the population the Native people in Ecuador are. They claim they're 40%. The Ecuadoran gov't tries to minimize that number.

What percentage of the total population of Australia are the Aboriginal peoples?

You can't write off all of Eastern Europe, either. Someone on one of the Slovenia threads said Slovenia is pretty much bi-lingual in Slovene and English. Many also know German.
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Old 06-01-2012, 11:25 AM
 
Location: Chicagoland
338 posts, read 924,490 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth View Post
You can't write off all of Eastern Europe, either.
Of the 4 Eastern European countries where I've lived or traveled extensively (Russia, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine), I found the CzR by far the most multilingual. The majority of Czechs can get by in some other language, usually German, English, or Russian, and many speak more than one.

Russia (where I lived until a couple of weeks ago) is very monolingual among its majority Slavic population. Even in Moscow, it is hard to find people fluent in any of the standard foreign languages, though English ability is growing.

Poland also surprised me with its relative monolingualism back in the 90s. Maybe things have changed since then.

Ukraine is a special case, as it is internally bilingual (Russian and Ukrainian), but few people speak the standard West European languages. I saw a survey indicating it had the lowest level of English knowledge in Europe.
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Old 06-01-2012, 11:29 AM
 
Location: Gatineau, Québec
26,758 posts, read 37,644,012 times
Reputation: 11527
Quote:
Originally Posted by allenk893 View Post
That's funny. About 10 years ago, I used to live in Canada and they most certainly weren't learning English. It wasn't even a class.
This is preposterous. It is a mandatory subject every single year of elementary school in Quebec starting in Grade 1 and has been so since 2006. Prior to that it had been a mandatory subject starting in Grade 3 for maybe 40 or 50 years.

In high school (which lasts five years in Quebec), you need to take and pass English for four of those five years in order to graduate.
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