> > I walked down to the deli yesterday with my
> > friend who is from Iraq. When I told the lady
> > clerk that my friend spoke no English and I had
> > been teaching him she said that foreigners
> > should be required to learn English before
> > coming here. Your opinion???
>
> I would go back and ask that woman if she thinks Americans should have to learn French before going to France or Quebec, or German before visiting Germany, or Spanish before...well, you get my drift.
>
> I think people who come to live here on a permanent basis need to learn the language, but I don't believe it should be a prerequisite.
>
> Gri"monolingual"shny

I think that people shouldn't feel they *need* to learn a new language when they go abroad, so long as they have some way of being uderstood (a bilingual friend, perhaps), but that, even for a short stay, it's polite to at least have a few basics. From personal experience I can say it it's always appreciated, even (or especially) in countries where most people speak English.

winter"learnt and forgotten fragments of German, French, Spanish, Portugese, Norwegian, Italian, Czech..."mute