9 basic concepts Americans fail to grasp

[Bluenorthwest]

6. Let's look at the languages claim. Is it true? Is this unique to Americans? Does it apply to

Americans as a group? Over all, about 26% of Americans are able to carry on a conversation in a second language. While this is much lower than continental Europe, with rates around 50%, it is in fact better than Australia, and not much worse than the UK, which has about 33% bilingual population.
Within the US, the Western States have a rate of 40% being bilingual, better than the UK. East about 22% and South and Midwest about 19%.
It is very interesting that political ideology associates with a variance in rates of bilingualism in the US, conservatives about 23%, liberals about 33%.
Hence, a group of West Coast liberals is likely to have a rate of bilingualism in the same rate range as various European countries, in spite of the whole 'really big country speaking the world's dominate language' thing. West Coast Americans are far more bilingual than UK citizens.
So I'd have to say that particular point is way, way over the top.