Firstly ... you do sound rather young .. and ... as you admit, rather unworldly from the origins that your personal Petri Dish allowed you to incubate from.

Nextly ... I've spent my entire life, (practically week to week ... no exageration) listening to a great variety of languages ... from the days my Old Country grandmother was'a yodelling Tunes & Tales to me as she was cleaning up the business in me diapers to my travels overseas hitting all the city bars with me brothers-in-law ... some of whom spoke not a word of American.

But that's nither or thither .... as it pertained to my general point. We are a multicultural nation formed from hundreds of tangential ethnic stocks all imploding upon the same unique vortex ... each being sucked into a Great Black Hole of Homogenation. And This is Good.

My own family is a miasma of immigrant adventurers. Some, like the fellows who landed in colonial Boston and at Jamestown Virginny in 1618 spoke British ... while other frontier colonials like the Pennsylvania trader who hitched up with a Lenape Broad in 1722 spoke his Lovey-Dovey in High German only, and was thus rewarded with a brood of kinder .... and a bunch of land. They were Rooseveltian Knickerbocker who found it prudent to take up The King's English .... in order to "Communicate" in the Pool of the General Population.

Again .... the point being .... we're a Family ... We need to Talk ... We need to Communicate .... We need to Understand Each Other ... and Why ? ? ... Simply because We need Each Other so we can Work Together as a Goal Oriented Society ---- None of This Cultually Ghettoized East Los Angeles will do in the Long Run.

Teaching "Ebonics" to Poor Little Unknowing Innercity Kids who more than likely don't want to grow up to be Poor ... well !! ... WHAT'S That All About ?? We are virtually a Nation of Hundreds of Mother Tongues. Fine ... speak Ebonics at your school cafeteria table "Wit yo Bro's" ... But remember ... since 1776 English has been the single most important ingrediant to the Elixir of Answers that allow us to understand one another.

If'n yo wantsta beez'a Loi'ya -O- Dok'ta sum daze ... Yo jus betta drops dat Ebonic Slave Talks -O- yo g'wonna findz yo'self enSlavin yo'self wit'cha Own Baall & Chain.

Another Poster has opined:

"Probably most of those people speak at least some of the language of the native country. Want to do international business in China? Great, you can compete with some of the 460,000 permanent residents from China who also want to do international business."

Well Lemme Tells Ya .... I did exactly that. I spent a month in Beijing last summer seeking out some profitable turf. And Lemme Tells Ya ... Everybody in town wants to learn the American language.... there's not a single exception. They understand what's what. They understand the international mode of communication & commerces is English.

You can travel all day across that city and see & read English everywhere .... Shure the hotel lobbies & sidewalks hummm with French, Russian, Japanese and so on. But ALL the highway signs are lettered in English. You cant walk many blocks without seeing French or Italian products advertised in English.

And English its been from the get-go after the Chairman croaked. And noooooooo ... it aint just causa the olympics that they've Seen the Light. My sister, a telecommunications analyst in the '80s was in & out of Beijing ... & understood the enthusiam of computerizing a Socialist Basketcase of a Billion Worker Bees .... saw it crystalizing while all America Slept...... The Chinese are as famously longsighted as Americans are famously shortsighted.

China is vastly & blatantly more energized in 'Americanizing' themselves than were those I observed in Tokyo in the 70s & 80s. Not a mile or so south of the Politboro & Mao's mausoleum I dined at a very lovely little eatery ... spackled with Stars & Stripes .... and emblazoned in English ....

"UNCLE SAM'S FAST FOOD"

I would like to ask something of your expertise.

When I was teeny-bopper sitting in a highschool Western Civilizations class, we were given an assignment of debating any of the great political, social or economic thinkers of the Age of Reason ... including theologians and philosophers.

I selected Rene Descartes. He felt himself qualified to define for All the World just exactly what "Reality" was.

... and there was the Rub.

Cogito ergo sum ... said he

Not so fast ... sez I

For any Fool should have been able to point out the Fact that an all encompassing statement like, "I THINK, THEREFORE, I AM" is virtually impossible to prove ... or disprove, for that matter.

It just kinda pointlessly floats up there -- like a pink, helium-filled Minnie Mouse balloon.

My challenge to M. Descartes followed thusly ... that a more perfect analysis of Human Reality ought to have read ; - - -

"Cogito, ergo cogito sum"

For its a simple mathematical balance to conclude that to say, "I Think, therefore - I THINK - I Am" is as readily provable as the Nose on Miss M's pretty little face.

MISS M: (smiling) "Mister Soup, I must say, I liked your paper very much. It was VERY provocative. -- But you might wish to check your Latin translation."

Well .... in fact, I never bothered. I was just pleased as punch to get the grade I got.

So -- but now .... if you don't mind my probe .... are you able to authenticate my Drive-By-Translation ?? If you're off snoozin in another time zone by now .... then don't bother. But I was curious. I asked a Jesuit once long ago on'a count'a his Latin skoolin ... but he just looked at me wierdly. Somebody informed me that Jesuits are like that. I dunno.

Anyway, I got an A on the paper. And it had Nothing to do with the toothy, lashy, giggly Crush Miss M had on me.