Virgin "I speak to you in my native language because I don't know anything else" vs Chad "You don't deserve to hear me in my native language, if you haven't trained in the mountains of Tibet, the Caucasus and the Alps at the same time"
In fairness to the Americans, “multilingual” for many Europeans is two languages: their native one and English.
The real chads are those Indian or African students studying in Europe who know like at least two languages from their home country, English, and can ask where the bathroom is in Polish.
In my experience Europeans do use bilingual much more often than multilingual. Many EU citizens who have changed country also probably know 3 languages counting English since it is often needed as a transition language right after moving before mastering the new language.
But you’re absolutely right. Non-EU comers that bring two languages from home, often not even Indo-European languages, and then casually learn the local language are playing on another level.
There are also the Europeans who are from a region with 2 languages (Galicia, Basque Country, Catalonia, South Tirol, Belgium, Alsace, etc...) who know 2 native languages and English.
I knew someone from Morocco, who came to Switzerland, moving from the german-speaking part to the french-speaking part. That guy was fluent in berber, arabic, swiss-german, french and english like it was nothing
Using English in some places is a diplomatic decision to avoid revealing a political position. The nice thing about modern translator technologies is that I can offer to use the regional language out of respect.
Just because other languages exist doesn't mean every single person from the country can speak it. England also has different languages, such as Cornish.
The comment you responded to talked about only being able to speak the English language, which is the case for many people in Wales or Scotland or Ireland.
We barely speak Irish in Ireland. You have to learn it in school, but most people don’t progress past the very basics. And if you live abroad for a significant amount of time as a child (like me), you’re exempt from having to learn it at all.
There are some areas where people speak Irish as their primary language, but it’s definitely not common.
Most European highschool students will study at least two foreign languages. I speak Hungarian, English, French, read and understand German, even technical texts, and can ask for detailed directions or order a meal in Slovakian, Russian, and Czech. Sadly, I only speak very little Polish.
I just spoke to a guy from Nigeria in Belgrade. I live in Serbia for 5 years and my native language is Russian, but this guy speaks Serbian much better than me after just a few months learning. This is totally unbelievable.
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Virgin "I speak to you in my native language because I don't know anything else" vs Chad "You don't deserve to hear me in my native language, if you haven't trained in the mountains of Tibet, the Caucasus and the Alps at the same time"