As a linguist, I find it unbelievably ignorant!!! to claim that German and French are that unrelated to each other. Indoeuropean have very similar structures, and you better make some more research before writing such nonsense. Also, multilingualism is in no way that more easily achieved in Switzerland than anywhere else as I know from my own experience.
I just think you misinterpreted what she meant by “THAT” unrelated. Sure, they have “very similar” structures … but I don’t find the languages similar at all. Not to say that German is not closer to French than say, Chinese. But, I speak English and French, and I can’t understand much German at all. But I do understand a lot of Italian from French because of the Latin-link that German doesn’t have. I don’t find what she said to be ignorant at all. “Multilingualism is in no way more easily achieved in Switzerland than anywhere else as I know from my own experience.” You’ve lived everywhere in the world? From my own experience also, I “know” that you’re wrong, to be blunt. There is a certain stigma given to people who don’t speak English in the US (”speak American,” as if it is unpatriotic), and the fact that in Switzerland they do regularly speak the different official languages and respect their multilingualism. Some places in the world are not nearly as accepting of these cultural and linguistic differences. The US is also extremely isolated in comparison to Switzerland, and so the country’s push to learn other languages (besides Spanish) is minimal at best. (”Oh, you’re taking Italian classes? Why not learn a useful language, like Spanish? What are you going to use Italian for?”) Of course it is more easily achieved in Switzerland.
As a linguist, I find it unbelievably ignorant!!! to claim that German and French are that unrelated to each other. Indoeuropean have very similar structures, and you better make some more research before writing such nonsense. Also, multilingualism is in no way that more easily achieved in Switzerland than anywhere else as I know from my own experience.
Indoeuropean languages that is
I just think you misinterpreted what she meant by “THAT” unrelated. Sure, they have “very similar” structures … but I don’t find the languages similar at all. Not to say that German is not closer to French than say, Chinese. But, I speak English and French, and I can’t understand much German at all. But I do understand a lot of Italian from French because of the Latin-link that German doesn’t have. I don’t find what she said to be ignorant at all. “Multilingualism is in no way more easily achieved in Switzerland than anywhere else as I know from my own experience.” You’ve lived everywhere in the world? From my own experience also, I “know” that you’re wrong, to be blunt. There is a certain stigma given to people who don’t speak English in the US (”speak American,” as if it is unpatriotic), and the fact that in Switzerland they do regularly speak the different official languages and respect their multilingualism. Some places in the world are not nearly as accepting of these cultural and linguistic differences. The US is also extremely isolated in comparison to Switzerland, and so the country’s push to learn other languages (besides Spanish) is minimal at best. (”Oh, you’re taking Italian classes? Why not learn a useful language, like Spanish? What are you going to use Italian for?”) Of course it is more easily achieved in Switzerland.