<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0">I find the notion that Spaniards have the lowest rate of speaking foreign languages in Europe to be fallacious. The simple truth is that many simply choose not to learn English.<BR>
The friends that I have made in Spain who are college teachers or, what we call, professionals, are fluent in French, or Italian or both. They tell me that they chose to learn these languages as students.<BR>
It may be that the shared "romance" linguistic foundation influences the choice of languages to be learned (although Rumanian is also considered a "romance" language but it does not seem to be a popular choice), or it may be the phonetic affinity between the so-called Latin languages (although, again, it cannot be said that French is phonetically that close to Spanish or Italian) or it may be some lingering remnants of the ancient enmities between England and Spain, but, at least among the Spaniards that have befriended me, and the young in their families, there seems to be no burning desire to learn or speak English; although, of course, there are many who do learn it.<BR>
Something similar happens in Italy; it never ceases to surprise me that in the smaller towns, outside of the tourist hub, one may find people who speak English poorly, or not at all, and yet they speak perfect Spanish, or French. <BR>
And why shouldn't it be so? Surely those of us who go to Europe a lot have noticed that Italy is full of French and Spanish visitors, particularly during the summer, that France is full of Italians and Spaniards and that Spain is full of everybody. With the shared Euro and the impressive economic strides of the European Union this can only become more so.<BR>
I am happy to report, however, that here in New York City the number of students in our colleges taking foreign languages has grown impressively, and that Spanish is the most applied-for language. Of course, this may be a reflection of those political realities that have compelled not only George W. Bush to learn Spanish, but our own NY Governor Pataki as well (I hear that our colorful mayor Bloomberg is taking lessons; he recently attended the funeral mass of a popular Cuban entertainer and addressed the mourners in Spanish, more or less); but it may also be the commercial realization that Spanish-speaking countries in our American continent have become huge trading partners of the U.S. Among other publications, Fortune magazine reports that Spanish-speaking executives are very much sought after.<BR>
Lest this message appear to be too far off-topic, let me add that a few weeks ago the president of Brasil, Lula, announced a government-funded "cultural bridge" university with sites in various cities of Brasil and in Santiago de Compostela, to promote mutual-language learning and culture sharing, with emphasis in Xacobean history and themes.<BR>
In one of the Brasilian Camino lists today there have already been more than one hundred St. James' day salutation messages. The Brasilians maintain the old form of the name of the Apostle: Tiago, whence San Tiago.<BR>
So, Happy San Tiago day, everybody. Parabems a voces.<BR>
<BR>
Rosina<BR>
<BR>
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