Learning a whole new language just to read literature or enjoy another culture is a lot of work. Lets not pretend people are doing that all across the world. If

Learning a whole new language just to read literature or enjoy another culture is a lot of work. Lets not pretend people are doing that all across the world. If you fall in love with a particular culture go right ahead. But if you don't, what then? Learn a bunch? I bet nearly all bilingualism is caused by immigration, cultures with historically close contact, and people learning a lingua franca. Part of the reason the US tends to be monolingual is because we have only one native language. English is the lingua franca of North America and now the globe. Spanish is growing because the fuzzier and fuzzier border with Mexico. But it's kind of a waste to learn German just so that when I got a trip there once every 5 years I'll be more able to drink up the culture.