Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for October 21, 2011

I’d like to know what kind of benefits multi-lingual people get… besides nice government jobs that is.

I’m calling BS on the language thing

An old story from the former USSR:If you speak 3 languages you are ‘trilingual’.If you speak 2 languages you are “bilingual”.If you speak only 1 language you are an ‘American’!

Sorry, the language thing is true. Also they’re better at multitasking, and as an additional side benefit they get all the ladies. I understand your sour grapes though. Que lastima por usted. Ne pleurez pas mon ami! Aun hay tiempo para aprender otro idioma. Je sais que vous pouvez!

This is one newspaper comic you don’t want to read at the table. If the diseased mosquito didn’t do the trick…Oh well, time to brush up on multiple languages.

So that’s what Bob Hope meant when he asked; “Does Mitch Miller really have a beard or just a hairy tongue”

It was a long time ago.Just making sure the dementia hadn’t completely set in here.

It’s funny to read all the ways in which people who only speak “American” justify their lack of learning another language. By the way, “Americans” do not speak English, only a slang version of it, and all Americans are descendants of people who never spoke “English.”

@Bob ViousYes. There are many benefits to being a cunning linguist. ;-D

Actor Viggo Mortenson can speak about 7 different languages quite fluently. That’s why he could play the part of Aragorn in the Lord Of the Rings films so well.

I heard it’s the British that speak the proper form of English.

Like to learn five or more languages in a weekend? I’ve read that in some African countries, you are considered “fluent” in their language if you can recite the alphabet!

That’s because they don’t burp after they drill. Release to the wild has been questioned as they don’t know what other bad traits they may have.

What about people who don’t even speak ONE language comprehensibly?

Chemists created DDT and everywhere it has been used it has wiped out mosquito-borne diseases like malaria and yellow fever, as well as wiping out bedbugs, roaches, and other disease-bearing vermin. The only reason we still have those problems anywhere in the world is that the environmentalists are more worried about critters than people. Mosquitoes kill millions – DDT kills nobody.

@RCMinor

As far as I know, only Americans speak American English. Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians spell with British English, as does Hong Kong, South Africa and Belize. Actually, English speaking Germans, Danes, Austrians, Russians and Norwegians all use British spelling.