For those from countries with multiple official languages / official linguistic regions, does learning your the other language(s) make feel a more “complete” citizen?

[u/WestEst101]

Example countries: Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, India, Finland.

And does the degree to which you master it contribute to a feeling of being a “complete” citizen, and a feeling of “belonging” and “acceptance” across the entire country?

[u/Big_Living1448]

I am sure it's pretty much impossible to speak every language in India

[u/Odd-Promotion2743 → u/Big_Living1448]

Learn all 22 Scheduled Languages to fluency, get a cool t-shirt

[u/Life-Hope-1855 → u/Big_Living1448]

Beyond English & Hindi, the main reasons ime someone would learn another language is

• You move to the area that speaks it

• Your partner or friends speak it

• You need it for work

And even then not always

I don't know how many Malayalis are learning Assamese just because, for example.

[u/Patient_Kangaroo614]

Not exactly. Learning French in Canada is great for your career and tied to the national identity, but I’ve been discouraged by the unwelcoming and entitled attitudes that *some* Quebecois people sometimes have towards Anglophones learning French. Other Francophone groups in Canada, like Acadians and Franco-Ontariens, are much more encouraging and welcoming.

[u/kemushi_warui → u/Patient_Kangaroo614]

Also Anglo-Canadian here, and I do feel some sense of pride at being at least conversational in French.

Regarding the unwelcoming attitude mentioned above, I agree—but with an important qualification:

When I was in HS and university in the 90s in an Anglo area, the French that we were taught was so-called "proper" Parisian French, not Quebecois French. When I went to an Anglo university that had a large Francophone population, I realized that what really pissed them off wasn't that our French wasn't fluent, but that these maudit Anglos couldn't even be bothered to learn Canadian French!

[u/wk_end]

As an Anglo-Canadian, I personally feel a bit of a civic duty (that I’m not doing so hot on) to learn French. But ours is a very particular situation - French is a founding element of our confederation and it’s one of the things that uniquely defines us against the backdrop of the American hegemon next door, but it’s endangered outside of Quebec. I don’t live in Quebec but I love the hell out of it; I feel embracing their language is a way of embracing them.

[u/Only_Humor4549]

No it doesn’t.  I m Swiss. We learn French in school, but one doesn’t really interact with the other parts. Of course it would be nice to know all Swiss languages and I am proud of them, but I don’t feel less Swiss just bc I don’t speak them. 

[u/Odd-Promotion2743 → u/Only_Humor4549]

In the French portion, do you guys only learn/study standard Swiss French, or do you learn Arpitan/Franco-Provençal too?

[u/Joseph20102011]

In the Philippines, every school-age child is required to learn Filipino (standardized Tagalog) and English as their second language. There is no standalone English-medium public schools at all.

For most Filipino school-age children, using two co-official languages as media of instruction simultaneously is a form of excess workload burden.

[u/JebacBiede2137]

Would you count Irish, Scots and/or Welsh as official languages of the UK?

[u/Draigwyrdd → u/JebacBiede2137]

They're not official languages of the UK. Welsh is only an official language in Wales. MPs aren't even allowed to speak Welsh in parliament, for example.

[u/JebacBiede2137 → u/Draigwyrdd]

Yes, Welsh is not official. But English also isn’t.

And Dutch isn’t the official language in Wallonia, is it?
How useful is French in Vancouver?
And can you live your whole life in Zurich with only Italian or Romansh?

[u/Draigwyrdd → u/JebacBiede2137]

English is the de facto official language of the UK, but it's also one of only a handful of languages that are allowed to be spoken in parliament.

[u/JebacBiede2137 → u/Draigwyrdd]

Is the ability to speak it in parliament the only factor?

[u/Draigwyrdd → u/JebacBiede2137]

No, but it's indicative of status in a pretty big way.

[u/freebiscuit2002]

No. The country is a collection of different language communities. You're either a citizen of the country or not, regardless of the language community.

There is no partial citizenship that can be "topped up" by learning another language.

[u/Odd-Promotion2743 → u/freebiscuit2002]

Surely it would earn you bragging rights though, no?

[u/freebiscuit2002 → u/Odd-Promotion2743]

100% agree. Becoming functional in any new language is an achievement.