Sometimes it feels like in the US, being fluent in any language other than English is unpatriotic. Blue America makes exception for French
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Hmm. Thinking of this some more, this is truly weird. No other country I've visited to has nationalism so reducible to language chauvinism.
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but language is generally how you preserve culture really in any country. It's not really a bad thing.
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. not true. India has ~30. Even tiny Switzerland has 4. Most have at least 2. National identity can have deeper base than lang
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Switzerland is a remarkable exception, not rule
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most Europeans I've met speak at least 2 languages, though admittedly my dealings are with cosmopolitan elites
many Europeans know English, but many hesitate to speak (yes they do). And Swiss have 5 if you count English.
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European polylingualism is often overstated -- most of time middle & lower classes are not polylingual



