Let’s take a second to appreciate all of the wonderful things that come with speaking different languages. Of course, it’s a given to be able to communicate in your mother tongue, but knowing more than one language definitely seems like a great advantage and an excellent skill. With around 1.35 billion people worldwide who speak English natively or as a second language, it’s surely a winner in the list of the most spoken languages worldwide.
Anyone using more than one language can come up with probably more than a few comical situations arising from the daily use and occasional misunderstanding. Some people, for one reason or another, tend to take offense at others for using different languages. This one man’s tweet sparked quite a discussion with some unexpected twists and a reminder that the USA actually has no official language.
More info: Twitter
A Twitter user was approached by a lady who told him to "speak English, we are in San Diego," and so he asked how to actually say 'San Diego' in English
Image credits: Flickr
The post went viral with nearly 770k likes and exploded with comments regarding the short but powerful story told by @ArtyCurry
Image credits: ArtyCurry
As Da(Y)go Brown, who goes by @ArtyCurry on Twitter, shared in his viral post, this lady approached telling him to "speak English, we are in San Diego." And that didn’t catch him by surprise as he immediately asked her how to actually say ‘San Diego’ in English. This tweet kicked off a conversation among the users that pointed out some clear arguments and encouraged people to share similar stories, which turned out to be quite a few.
Image credits: TheKing_SD
One user immediately commented that due to many Latino people living in San Diego, the lady should have known already about a great number of Spanish language users. As well as being in the top 5 most used languages in the world, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the USA. And the other comments reflected that some people are still not aware that, for example, Puerto Rico is a US commonwealth or that many people are actually fluently bilingual.
Not so much of a surprise, but there are many Spanish language speakers in the USA
Image credits: collettecollage
The post comments had quite a few examples of similar situations that happened to people
Image credits: 1d_ft_glee
Image credits: barefootbaristr
Examples of people claiming English being the official language reminded another user of a story where a woman was speaking a different language and was ask to speak English, not ‘Mexican,’ as "you’re in America right now." Turns out it wasn’t even ‘Mexican,’ but Navajo, and the woman cold-bloodedly replied that "if you want to speak English, go back to England."
This girl shared that she can't wait for someone to challenge her with the language point
Image credits: mawanji13
Many people who speak other than English as their native tongue tend to be bilingual, and so do their kids
Image credits: laurenkmeow
So the probably forgotten fact in the USA, drum roll, of not having an official language, made it to the topic. The most commonly used language in the country is, by any means, English, which makes it de facto, with approximately 78% of the US population using it at home. Spanish is also widely used (around 13.4%), as well as other ones. What is the most amazing is that the majority of other language users also speak English, making them bilingual.
English is just one of the languages in the USA, as there is no official language
Image credits: taralynnnnns
So saying 'it's America, speak English' is unjustified
Image credits: SheriLlewellyn
Other users expressed that people should mind their own business
Image credits: McnicolSalazar
Twitter user Stephanie Salazar shared that perhaps overhearing conversations in different languages shouldn't be any of the eavesdroppers' business, as well as feeling superior if they only know one language over those who speak two or more.
Image credits: mend555
Since the viral post that started the discussion was set in San Diego and questioned the origins of the name, this user stepped right in
Image credits: e_galv
Image credits: DreamWorks Pictures
On a serious note, these people decided to explain the origins of 'San Diego'
Image credits: arthur_affect
In some comments, pictures spoke for themselves
Image credits: 1BrownOnTheTown
Image credits: Ancestor_Cult
And for all of the monoglots and polyglots out there, this person brought up some of the history and geography surrounding the region
Image credits: in_dems