[Cloudbringer]

Alicat, this is a very interesting topic, one which I've seen bandied about for many years! I was a Russian language/literature major in college and when you do a BA and MA based on another culture and it's literature you find yourself hearing alot about how bad Amercians are because most of our population never bothers to learn a second language. As you noted, it can go both ways too, not only do the English speakers amongst us fail to pick up another language but those for whom English isn't the mother tongue frequently never bother to learn English.

I currently work in a University language,literature and culture department and can tell you that I've received countless calls from hospitals, lawyers offices and other professionals asking us to provide interpreters (it's translating when done in print, but interpreting if oral/aural work), mainly for Russian and Spanish. Once I ended up having to be an intermediary for a local policeman who had a homeless man to deal with downtown in the local government offices. I would talk to the one, then the other, interpreting as best I could. This guy was convinced the USA owed him but he didn't speak a word of English and never learned the system. You see, he was trying to get benefits from the Veteran's administration, but uh...helloooooooo, he wasn't an AMERICAN Veteran, sigh...and that made it a very interesting discusssion.

So I can commisserate with you and the difficulties involved in trying to do your job and help people who in some cases, refuse to help themselves. Because that's exactly what learning the local mother tongue (or official language) does for you if you reside in the country. It helps immensely. I've never understood the concept of making more languages 'official' instead of supporting people in learning. Now, that said, I'll admit that many people in the USA have the apalling attitude that they don't need to and never SHOULD bother learning another language. SOME of them have this 'we're right and perfect and the best, so everyone bow to us and learn OUR language or we won't deal with you!' attitude and I find that as close-minded as the immigrants who avoid English all their lives. I

One reason some people may not want to learn English is that they feel it will undermine their heritage and they'll 'forget' their roots etc. or be too 'Americanized'. I can sort of see why they would not want that to happen, but I honestly don't think it's a NECESSARY result of learning another language to deal with your day to day life. Conversely, I can tell the story of my best friend, who didn't grow up with a second language, yet her own maternal grandmother spoke not a word of English, only the Italian of her homeland before she emigrated. Seems my friends MOTHER and her sisters didn't want to learn the Italian or use it, because they wanted to 'fit in' here in the states where they were born. But that was back in the 40's and 50's. So I do sympathize with them, as back then there was a alot of antagonism and teasing for being 'ethnic' or 1st generation American-born, and my friend's mom just wanted to 'blend in' as it were. I had some neighbors when I was a kid, who had moved here from Canada. The father spoke NO English and never learned, the mother learned enough to get by, the oldest girls had thick accents but spoke pretty good English, the middle one had a less limited vocabulary and a slight accent, while the youngest sounded like he'd been born and raised in an all Englsh-speaking family. His French, though was quite good! They spoke French at home and it was expected that they would speak to the grandchildren in French too. Their idea being that the kids would get enough English in school.

LOL, I guess I can see more than one side on this issue. [img]smile.gif[/img] Personally, I too would learn the language of my home country (wherever I was living), in order to get along!