It was thus said that the Great Bill Gunshannon via cctalk once stated: > > On 11/25/18 5:42 PM, Grant Taylor via cctalk wrote: > > On 11/23/18 5:52 AM, Peter Corlett via cctalk wrote: > >> Worse than that, it's *American* ignorance and cultural snobbery > >> which also affects various English-speaking countries. > > > > Please do not ascribe such ignorance with such a broad brush, at least > > not without qualifiers that account for people that do try to respect > > other people's cultures. > > > > > Q. What do you call someone who speaks three languages? > > A. Trilingual. > > Q. What do you call someone who speaks two languages? > > A. Bilingual. > > Q. What do you call someone who speaks one language? > > A. American.
As an American, a friend of mine from Sweden (who himself speaks at least three languages) considered me multilingual. Of course, my other languages are BASIC, Assembly, C, Forth ... I even heard of a high school in Tennessee who said computer languages fulfill the "foreign language requirements" ... who'da thunk? > OK, it's a joke. (I'm American and speak 4 languages.) -spc (Who speaks English and perhaps a dozen words in German, but plenty of computer languages ... )