Preply’s travel survey includes vital statistics that reveal important truths about American tourism. Namely, 32% of Americans choose their destination based on whether the locals speak fluent English.
They choose destinations not for the food, or the history, or the cost of the flight. Instead, almost a third of American travelers are approaching global travel through the lens of a language comfort filter.
The data makes this trend clear. The countries Americans most often consider relocating to are Australia at 20%, the UK at 20%, and Canada at 19%. This very Anglophone list shows us how confident many Americans are about learning a new language. Their travel destination wishlist is a little more adventurous, with Italy on top at 26%, but three of the top five destinations are still English-speaking.
Statistics on Japan are interesting. 18% of Americans would like to visit, but only 10% would consider living there, so this gap reflects not interest in the place but the length of time spent there. A week of pointing at unfamiliar menus is fun, but a year of it is intimidating.
Rather than simply taking a few jabs about how monolingual Americans are, the team shows us some of the reasons underneath these preferences. When asked why they didn’t prepare with some language learning before travel, 37% of respondents felt that the language was too difficult to learn. 33% said they’re bad at learning languages. 31% feared offending someone if they said the wrong thing.
This survey reflects self-reported anxiety about language learning rather than a true test of aptitude. It seems Americans have decided they will fail at learning a foreign language before they even begin to try.
