I used to feel quite proud when people complimented me on my English. I come from a country where knowing a foreign language might well be a ticket towards a better life. Older generations that didn't, like us, grow up with English around every corner, certainly regard it as such. *Not* a given. I've met quite a few people in their 40s/50s here who don't speak English too well, and make no excuse for it.

What's strange to me is that I've also met plenty of the younger generation in that same position. I remember going out with some guy a couple of years ago in his late twenties (I think), who informed me quite casually that he doesn't know English. I said, and doesn't that bother you? Don't you want to learn? He said not really, why would I?

At the time, I put it down to personal negligence of some sort. After all, availing yourself of as many foreign languages as you can is in *your* best interest. 

Yet the more I see, the more I realize it's a more general (and spreading) issue. Proficiency has lost the appeal it once has. Where my grandmother's generation (and even my mother's) used to regard fluent speakers of foreign languages with awe and pride, younger generations seem to regard it as optional.

**Somewhere, the idea that you don't need to speak well has permeated our culture.**

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![image.png](https://images.hive.blog/DQmQFi5s9UgNFDrFagL56k2LW3UwBkB1z1CpKSZo2bgwRYg/image.png)
*Damn tourists.*</center>

Perhaps in the West, this doesn't seem like such a big deal. After all, I imagine Western countries are accustomed to immigrants with various levels of language proficiency, so someone with poor English might seem normal.

But coming from a country for which a strong knowledge of English was a qualifier for a better life, it's saddening that we're abandoning this noble pursuit of learning, of bettering yourself.

A client was surprised at my use of English yesterday. Because seeing I was from Romania, presumably, he wouldn't expect my English to be all that good. Probably expected me using simpler, more basic phrases, and making a few mistakes in my speech.

Last week, another client complained I'd used a "tricky" word, and could I write more simply please? The client was a non-native English speaker, though the brand we were working for was an American (I think) company. The word I'd used was "flit", which I wasn't aware was a complex word, but apparently.

**Use simple words** was his message, and it baffled me, because I wasn't aware I was using complicated ones. Obviously, in writing simple marketing copy, you need easy words. But it seems to me that, as everything we do goes global thanks to social media, we're oversimplifying.

"I don't know that word" used to mean I should learn it. Now it means, "use a simpler word".

**And that's wrong.** Just earlier, I was editing a text on Medium with an American friend, and he used a word I didn't know in critiquing. My first impulse was saying "I don't know what that means". But then the Romanian in me went, *so fucking what? look it up*.

Where I come from, that used to be the mentality. There's always been a feeling in Romania (and I think in most of Eastern Europe) that we were severely disadvantaged and that we'd have to work a *lot* to justify our usefulness to Western foreigners. That meant learning the language well. That meant hard work.

Now, it's the foreigners dumbing it down (both for international and at-home audiences). Well, where's the incentive to learn? There's that stereotype of the dumb, entitled tourist that you see when traveling, the one who insists on speaking English loudly until the natives of wherever give way.

And you can't respect that. You can, however, respect the tourist who tries to integrate some of the local language, or at least makes some kind of apology for not knowing something. Because not knowing something used to be a disadvantage. Now, we've grown so entitled and self-absorbed that we naturally expect the world to accommodate our insufficiency.

Where does that lead?

I remember running into an old teacher a few years ago. Told her I was studying Italian. We got along very well, but this, she frowned on this, she said no, learn German, learn something that will be useful to you. Grow.

That was what you did. You learned languages to broaden your horizons, your mind, to do better in life. What incentive will future generations have when the grown-ups around them shrug in their own impotence and insufficiency and ask for simpler words?

It used to be that the non-native speaker felt bad about not knowing a foreign language better. I don't think that was good necessarily, either. I don't think you should make people feel bad for poor knowledge of a language, as long as they're trying. Now, though, it's the natives feeling bad for being natives and not more accommodating to people who no longer *care* about learning their language. Well, what's the sense in that?

**While it's true that (in many places), you can get by in English, that's not really the point of life. Do you wanna just get by, or do you wanna thrive? Grow?**

***

And since it's #threetunetuesday (thanks @ablaze! ), here's some songs. I learned English and got better at French, Italian, and Russian *through* songs and movies. It's probably my favorite way to learn.

https://youtu.be/8ASggnoga9Q?list=RD8ASggnoga9Q
https://youtu.be/L6PozTsgrXY
https://youtu.be/mr4XBbJv5DQ



![bannn.jpeg](https://images.hive.blog/DQmcfG4AJwbZ5gjnN3h2h1CFvA2ENvemoyhYzfKmezqtYNo/bannn.jpeg)