Linguisitically Speaking, Are Americans Arrogant?

[SpiralArchitect]

I think it would be unfair to stereotype an entire nation but yes a fair amount of Americans are indeed linguistically arrogant. The sad part is that some of these are actually people who are otherwise quite ok.

[Baburra]

I do not think of it as arrogance, a nation has a right to choose whether or not they should teach their citizens a foreign language or not. Japan doesn't teach their citizens many languages outside of their own, I assume, but yet they are not as demanded by the rest of the world to learn another language like they do Americans. I don't know what it is about America, maybe it's just because they are so widely visible through media.

Anyway, my point is, no, it's not arrogance, it's just pride in one's own language and nation, and I think that's okay as long as we all still remember that we're all still only a part of one human race.

[Trellum]

Yes, I believe they are a bit, but at least they have a reason behind that... after all english is an international language.  So expecting most people to be able to communicate in it isn't as bad as it sounds, actually is to be expected.  I'm a native spanish speaker, but whenever I travel to another country I always assume and expect I'll be able to get by with just english   So english speaking people shouldn't feel so bad about it. 

But if you want to speak about arrogance... look at the french people (not all of them, of course), but in my experience it seems they always expect you to know french.  I had an awful time once when I was stuck at their airport, and I knew no french... I was treated so badly by a lot employees!  Only because I dared to speak english, lol.  There is no excuse for that kind of arrogance...

[JessiFox]

As an American myself, yes I'm afraid that in general we are...and it's a shame. I always hate when people talk about traveling here or there but have NO interest in learning the language. I can understand that not everyone has the capacity to be 100% fluent in every language they come across, but is it really too much to ask to learn enough to be conversational in the places you want to go? To me it's just a simple sign of respect to be able to communicate well enough that you aren't essentially a burden to those who have to deal with you. I've noticed far too many people who seem to think English should be the primary language *everywhere*...every place they travel and for everyone coming into the US as well. It is complete ignorance and really puts us at a disadvantage.

[lovemwaf]

In general american are arrongant. I found this to be true when i realized that they spell certain words different from how the british who are the owners of the language do. It takes a lot of arrogance to adopt a language and then tell the innovators how to spell it.