Why do we have a second language again?
 

Posting here because this has nothing to do with Politics and Religion.

Why do we have to have a second language (or more) on almost everything we buy?

I realize there are visitors in our country who do not understand English but English is our language and having other languages to sort through is a pain.

I guess it boils down to manufacturers marketing their goods to more than one market.

http://marcjager.com/images/facepalm.jpg

If a manufacturer can sell his product in the USA & Mexico with ZERO changes it saves them money. Many electronic gizmos come with instructions in several dozen languages.

Here in Canada it's the law. We have two official languages, therefore all packaging must be in both.

Beat me to it and I hate that about Canada.

The additional manufacturing and other resources we expend on it makes it almost not worth selling our products up there.

S. America has some of the same issues.

Forget Brazil. We sell to a distributor and let them grey market it in. Money loser for us to do directly.

French and Canadian, eh? ;)

I think we miss out on a lot of products for that reason. It's not as bad now as it was several years ago, though. I remember when I was a kid I was fascinated with American chocolate bars. Of course, you guys never did get Smarties!

Its to remind you there is a whole world outside of USA. :)

+10 freaking million.

I can tolerate multiple language labels, but what irks me currently is "press 1 for english" on a phone.

Hahaha. Now that's funny.

When you need to press "1" for Spanish and "2" for English, one tends to throw the phone through the wall.

Lompoc School District......

They have three languages in Arizona. English, Spanish and whatever the hell it is that OJU speaks

Isn't Smarties English and not Canadian?

I think he really works for the gov't as a code talker....

Nailed it. I work with a scientist from Africa who speaks 7 languages. He told me a joke one time:

Q: What do you call a person with an college degree who only speaks one language?

A: An American.

Both.

Why do I have to select the language at an atm? I honestly doubt I am going to suddenly feel the need to use the atm with my card in german or arabic.
Can't I have my language preference coded to the card? Or is this a fraud/theft protection thing?

This answers the question
 

And what do you call a lot of the world that speaks English as a 2nd language? Knowing the advantage.