Some Americans are averse to learning other languages, so I was wondering what traditional Americans learned, or if they knew more than English. You say only the upper class? https://twitter.com/SelimSeesYou/status/1014021405518675973 …
-
-
The greater Roosevelt (Teddy) likewise: read books in both French & German tho apparently his German pronunciation when speaking was comically poor.
-
Now I gotta research this. Danke

-
Selim is right. French was the go-to second language for Americans for as long as the nation's existed, for several reasons: 1. Canada being our neighbor, obviously they have a lot of french influence 2. Louisiana and "cajun" culture 3. France being our first and principal ally
-
French was also looked on as a very aristocratic/educated sounding language, which held a certain appeal. I'm not familiar how popular German was, but I know latin/greek were taught in american private schools and universities for as long as such have existed.
-
Tweet unavailable
-
Was just about to say this. Really grew w/ Germany & it’s scientific contributions in 19th century. I was wrong about the founders: many knew French, German not so much. But German did take off shortly after our founding for obvious reasons.
-
I will try to find source but I once read somewhere German was the second largest language in US among newspaper publications in the early 20th century. Once WW1 got underway, it fell out of favor. And then Hitler did the thing (allegedly), and German was stamped out of the US.
-
Oh! Now I remember hearing there were like 700 German papers or something Now, I'm more interested in Americans "organically" speaking other languages, not about immigrants retaining they're native langs. (because I'm trying to reason with anti-bilingual people)
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.