elice_in_oz

Of course we are cleverer, smarter and more intelligent. And we are taking over the world... Bbwaaaaaahhhhh

Oh, and mostly we write better English than you lot!

eddie007

I was entirely educated in the uk and was never taught "English"

Yup we had "English lessons" But it wasnt about rules, grammer, construction... That was thought to have been aquired through osmosis, being English speaking....

Do you have ANY idea how angry it makes me hear some one say..

"Will you borrow me a fiver til payday"

Dont they know I'm skint ffs???

BadgeIsBack

Have to be honest, I've always had respect for people who are absolutely bilingual. Which is why I get quite a thrill (steady on!) out of seeing my kids pick up languages so fast. It doesn't matter what they do now - they will always have options available to them.

Broad Shoulders

I can understand the theory behind this finding. When you are truly bi-lingual it is like a switch in your mind to flick between the languages.

When I was about 14 I would regularly travel back to the UK from my home in France. On numerous occasions I would find myself in England asking a shop keeper in French something only to find them looking at me blankly, then I realise I'm using the wrong language. You also find yourself dreaming bilingually too. You also think in the language you are using at that moment in time. If you add cultural bilingual to it too, then that adds even more to the effect. A big part of speaking French is in the facial expressions when you speak, they use this a lot more than Brits do and it is a very important part of getting your point across.

papilon

At the age of about 28 i moved to Denmark, i learnt in a relatively short time to speak fluent Danish, and was often praised for it.

Growing up in the UK we tend to be overly impressed when people speak a foreign language and as far as i am concerned it's just a matter of repetition and having a good ear.

I had other expat friends there, some much much smarter than i will ever be, but there Danish was often quite poor, they just didn't have the ear for it.

BadgeIsBack

I have a lousy ear - I do - I've really struggled with languages later on in life where others do well.

But I do pick up the written word better than the spoken.

commonwealth

commonwealth

I can fluently speak three languages which I learned while growing up. Does that make me more smarter?

commonwealth

¡ay caramba!

ukecadet

Oui Si Ja

elice_in_oz

Makes you three times more smarter than the more smarter monolingual people
Are those three languages you talk bullshite, gobbledygook and bollocks by any chance?

commonwealth

smarterest

Budawang

What, like "the clever country"?

Dorothy

I used to speak French, but haven't used it for so long that I've forgotten most of it. Does that make me formerly smart?

Turban Explorer

C'est comme faire du velo n'est-ce pas?