Hacker News Reader

It doesn’t help that native English speakers are less inclined to learn another language and don’t get to understand the experience of being at the other end

View on HN

There isn't the same motivation if you already speak the lingua franca.

My experience learning a foreign language as a native English speaker, is that people in the target country are sometimes puzzled as to why you want to learn it.

They also then have a strong preference to practice English with you instead, which is understandable, if not frustrating.

Less inclined, or with less incentive, and fewer opportunities? Whereas English is omnipresent. Finding good teachers is always tough in a monolingual environment. I'm reminded of visiting China in the 2000s, many Chinese languages, rarely foreign languages, but a hunger to learn English from native speakers.

I believe it to be a cultural thing. Sure, you don’t necessarily have the incentive to learn a language for work but the education system does not promote it either. I know a lot mainland European who speak languages other than English just out of interest for other cultures with no real use in their daily job.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com