Is it true that for most european english is not their mother tongue?

Europe is a continent.Therefore is consisted by many DIFFERENT countries.

So, the Italians speak Italian, the English speak English, the Greeks speak Greek, the Germans speak German.....

When its needed to communicate with other country's population we talk in English, which is the lingua franca (aka international language) .....

All Americans are part of ONE country, all European are part of MANY countries.

Got it ?

First of all, even Great Britain has different languages like Manx, Welsh and Gaelic [Scottish and Irish] spoken as their Mother Tongue there. English is spoken widely, but, everyone speaks their own mother tongue when amongst their own , dinna ken?

I think the lady was trying to say that the United Kingdoms were the Kingdoms of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

Second of all, most of Europe has it's own set of Mother Tongues such as French, Flemish, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese and so on and so forth where they don't speak any English, at all. Just a very small minority speak English there.

Third of all, who are you kidding?

Ever try calling a Help Desk in USA, holmes?

Press 1 for Spanish, Press 2 for...

Come on!

40 % of the Americans speak Spanish, for crying out loud!?

Have a nice day.

Akela,

the Lone Wolf

[An ex-Yank, now living in India and a polyglot to boot.]

By the way, a lot of Americans are actually polyglots. I should know, because I used to live and work there, in NYC and almost all my friends could speak at least 2 or 3 other languages. All Americans ain't all dumb. At least, all of us ain't blond.

LMAO! Animal seeking Kindness, Miss SC is a blond, for Heavens sake!

Please don't have everyone think that it's a country of rednecks, buddy.

Actually, a lot of Americans can even speak read and write Arabic, Farsi, Pashtu and languages like Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and so on.

It's just that they're not the Americans that y'all see every day, but, they are all there, all the time.

And a lot of the Americans have gone to many other Countries and can speak their languages like Natives.

If the lady in the video had asked the same question to the Marines, [like they say "tell that to the Marines"] she'd be in for a shock. Most every Military trained person, and there are a lot of them in the US of A, remember, can read Maps and speak at least one or two different languages other than American.

I can speak 4 East Indian languages already!? And I've only been here for a little over a year.

Oh dear. Britain is made up of 4 countries - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. A lot of Americans when they mean English they say British. Its not the same thing.

Every European country has its own language, hence the different countries. Spain speak spanish, France speak French and so own. Almost all Europeans excluding the British speak English fluently or to some degree. Most countries teach English in their schools. In Britain we also learn other languages but never to the same degree. Many countries are now joining the EU that were not part of it previously. Citizens from these recently added EU countries usually don't speak English to the same degree as say Germans or Belgians.

You are speaking as if Europe was a unique country like the USA, instead it is a continent made of a lot of nations and every country has its own language...

Actually only in three European countries English is the official language:

UK, Ireland and Malta

Then there are a lot of other languages, for more info, read here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Europe

How do we communicate? Once again, you are speaking as if Europe was a unique country which has the necessity to have an official language... But since there are several nations, they communicate each other in the same way as the USA communicate with a non-English speaking country...

As you know Europe is made of distinct countries each with their own language. Switzerland has German, French and Italian. English is becoming recognized as an international language (much to the disgust of the French). We are taught other languages at school. My kids have learnt French and German at school. I'm also learning Spanish. If everyone speaks a common language, life is a lot simpler. However, I think it would be a great loss to Europe if each of the countries lost their languages in favour of English. Something like 60% of English words are actually derived through history from other languages.

Europe or the EU is not like the USA

Europe is a continent like North America where languages also vary there:

Canada- English & French

USA- English & Spanish

Mexico- Spanish

Caribbean Nations- English, French, Spanish etc

Europe is an old world continent with the indigenous populations dominating in every country so the indigenous languages still dominate eg:

English- UK

German- Germany,

French- France

Spanish- Spain

Portuguese- Portugal

There may be no more borders restricting travel within the EU making us able to travel freely but I dont think loads of people do so due to language and cultural barriers and it still is migrating to me those borders still exist and this is still a vast continent. I have only been to France and they expect you to speak French lucky I was with someone who could, Paris is hardly like London though it is closer to us than other English cities.

Geography/Distance means nothing in Europe its still a continent.

Each European country has it's own language.But the main trading language is English.The British,on the whole,are basically lazy as to learning a foreign language and of course in the days of the Empire English was spread all over the globe.

there are various languages, and it is very genuine for Asian languages, that don't have a number of the English sounds. i'm able to comprehend Asian human beings merely wonderful whilst they talk English, whether or no longer they have an accessory or no longer. occasion: The Korean language does not have a 'f' or a 'v' of their language, so they replace it with a 'p' or a 'b', so whilst they talk English, it may desire to sound like they're saying 'pibe' particularly of '5' because of the fact the f and v isn't of their language. yet even then, based on the context, human beings must be waiting to tell what Asians are saying, fairly the youths that stay in North u . s . and the united kingdom. Adults who immigrated could be a distinctive tale. frequently talking, the adults could have the accessory. you are able to comprehend an Asian whilst they talk English. you merely ought to prepare like listening to songs, or you ought to purchase audio books to pay attention. What you additionally can do is discover Google Translate. It has a function the place that is going to study out the word, so which you will translate from jap to English and notice what the English word sounds like, and learn it that way. as properly, from the seems of what you typed, you're convalescing very lots. you will particularly get there in a jiffy! ^^ solid success!

Omg you have got to be joking! Only UK, Ireland, the channel Islands, Gibraltar and Malta have English as an official language in Europe!

There are 23 official languages in the European union alone! That is not including non-EU countries!

yes, most of us have the decency to learn a country's language if we frequently travel or have dealings within that country rather than talking very loudly and slowly in English and expecting them to understand

most students will learn on average at least two european languages in high school - i started off learning spanish and french which is basically an enormous chunk of europe covered

but i dropped french in favor of Japanese - and ended up finding Japanese was easier haha