forgot to quote, and sorry for getting off topic:
Clemenza wrote:
“Miami is an “international city.” It is essentially a financial and business center for multinationals doing business in Latin America. Like New York, it is “post-cultural.”
We are moving into a new world folks, whether you like it or not.”
I don’t mind it at all. I welcome it. BUT, I have had the pleasure of visiting 9 different European countries, and in each one, I was expected to at least attempt to converse in their language. It was not expected to converse in English, though many of them were fluent and were glad to once I made the effort to speak theirs. I just think that in the United States, English ought to be the spoken language, and if you come here, you ought to attempt to speak it. To go into a major US business and not be able to speak your own language. That to me is appalling. Just my opinion. Like it or not.
Yes, but by that token, you would have to say that American retirees in Costa Rica should speak Spanish (for the most part, they don't), or that the wealthy Middle Easterners in Marbella would speak Spanish when amongst eachother or those who live in London would do the same in English.
In mixed business company, English is the lingua franca. I had a meeting in Panama where we had two folks from China, and a Panamanian citizen of Syrian birth. Want to guess which language we used?
I am 100% against bilingual education or official documents in languages other than English. Nevertheless, language is a COMMODITY that will change due to the demands of the market and the situation. If someone wants to conduct business in Esperanto, I could care less (unless they are doing business with me).
If anything, even in Europe and (to a lesser extent) Latin America, it is ENGLISH that is a threat the the national languages, not the other way around.
I also believe that the flip side of public institutions refusing to standardize everything to English is the fact that most Americans REFUSE to learn other languages! EVERY school should start foreign language instruction at the primary level, instead of two years in high school.