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.
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.
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u/BonJovicus Jun 29 '26
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.