Question

What is the message in "A person who knows three languages is trilingual. "Someone who knows two languages is bilingual. "But do you know what they call a person who speaks only one language?" Pausing for a beat, Mr. Hafizov replied triumphantly to his own question, "American!" message?

Answer 1

Hello there! :D

First of all, I find this question kind of funny. Haha, I love that this is an accepted idea around the world. Us Americans deserve it.

The message in this quote represents an idea of ethnocentrism in America. We, as Americans, usually expect others to learn English but we never learn other langauges besides our own. Many people in Europe and Asia live and converse with people who speak multiple languages, but we live in a place where one is particularly accepted. In fact, most Americans can even get angered by people in the workforce that do not speak our own language. Because we do not intermarriage and we tend to stay within the same socioeconomic class our entire lives (capitalism), there is not much diversity in the langauges and culture we are exposed to. So Mr. Hafizov was right!

I hope this helped you and you have a wonderful day,

Kai xx