@druid I think there are many reasons why some English people are so opposed to multilingualism (in any other language). Paranoia (they're talking about me), jealousy (they're doing something I can't), fear (I don't understand), controlfreakery (they should just use English) and snobbishness (English is used worldwide, why would anyone need another language). Any one person can have one or many of these feelings.
Fortunately, we're not all like that!
@suearcher @druid @5357311 @marijeangordon
One of my favourite internet memes is of a woman speaking Welsh to her daughter (in Wales) and being told to stop speaking "foreign muck" π€¦π
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/woman-told-stop-speaking-foreign-13598021
@TCMuffin @suearcher @5357311 @marijeangordon Ah yes, I remember that. Shocking. This bit made me actually LOL though:
"I have had comments from people saying βgo back to your own countryβ, which is very funny because I am from Aberystwyth.β. π€£
@druid @suearcher @5357311 @marijeangordon
πππ
@TCMuffin @druid @suearcher @5357311 @marijeangordon
There was a viral story here in America a few years back about a barista chastising a customer to "Speak English!" And the woman responded, "I'm British. I am speaking English."
The absolute fear that some people have of anything different to them is astonishing.
@RomanticSkeptic @TCMuffin @druid @5357311 @marijeangordon
Slightly off the point, but I heard a story of a guided tour in York stopping outside the Minster, and an American lady asking "If this building pre-war?" The guide replied "Madam, this building is pre-America!"
Also when my husband first moved to Manchester, someone told him to stop "talking posh", as he had a (very ordinary)London accent.
@suearcher @TCMuffin @druid @5357311 @marijeangordon
The stereotype that many Americans are under-educated and xenophobic is absolutely true.
Signed,
An Actual American π
@RomanticSkeptic @TCMuffin @druid @5357311 @marijeangordon To be fair, I have met many delightful Americans, and I'm well aware of the failings of many of my own countryfolk.
The guns thing is perhaps the most mind boggling....
@suearcher @RomanticSkeptic @druid @5357311 @marijeangordon
Us too β€οΈ
Our best travel buddies were that endangered species...Democrats from Nashville, Tennessee β€οΈ
@TCMuffin @suearcher @druid @5357311 @marijeangordon
Unicorns! π¦
@RomanticSkeptic @suearcher @druid @5357311 @marijeangordon
Indeed...and some of our closest friends who've we've missed greatly since the pandemic π