🚀 go-pugleaf

Chuck Coker wrote:
> 
> On Sat, 21 Dec 1996 02:12:02 GMT, in sci.lang, CJCoker@Cris.Com (Chuck
> Coker) [me] wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, 19 Dec 1996 16:32:54 +0000, in sci.lang, Julian Pardoe
> > <pardoej@lonnds.ml.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Reminds me of a bad joke (which I'm going to get wrong):
> > >
> > > Q: What do you call a person who speaks four languages?
> > > A: A polyglot.
> > >
> > > Q: What do you call a person who speaks two languages?
> > > A: A bourgeois nationalist.
> > >
> > > Q: What do you call a person who speaks one language?
> > > A: An internationalist.
> >
> > The way I heard this joke, the last person was an American (United
> > States citizen). :^)
> 
> Due to the amount of mail I've received on this, I thought I might
> clarify, or at least tell the joke as I originally heard it.
> 
> Q: What do you call a person who speaks three or more languages?
> A: Multilingual.
> 
> Q: What do you call a person who speaks two languages?
> A: Bilingual.
> 
> Q: What do you call a person who speaks one language?
> A: An American.
> 
> The joke is that Americans expect everyone else to speak English, even
> when we travel to a non-English-speaking country. In other words,
> Americans are so arrogant that they expect the world to conform to
> them.
> 
> Chuck Coker
> CJCoker@Cris.Com
> 
> BTW, I am an American (United States citizen).

I too am an American.  I've travelled abroad many times and I find that 
English is spoken quite well in London, as well as Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo, 
Hong Kong, Bangkok, and even in Mexico.  It is not that we are arrogant, 
it is because they want to do business with us.  I also speak Mandarin 
Chinese rather well, and a little bit of 6 other languages.

Ron