David Monniaux wrote:
Come on. All official sites, all political debates, all major news etc. are in English. Can a latino legislator do a speech in Spanish in the Capitol US? I doubt so; at least, I doubt it could happen in practice.
Compare to multilingual European countries like Belgium or Switzerland.
You're absolutely right about this.
However,
I mean, radios, newspapers etc. for immigrant communities also exist in Europe. Go to Paris, you'll see Chinese and Arabic newspapers, Arabic radios.
This is the same in all US cities of a size similar to Paris. There are radio stations in English and Spanish everywhere I have lived in the last 20 years, and newspapers in Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Spanish, etc., depending on the local population. (Chicago, San Diego, Tampa)
Bay News 9 is the local 24 hour news channel in the area where Chad Perrin and I live (Tampa bay area, Florida), and it broadcasts 2 stations of news 24 hours a day -- one in Spanish, one in English.
I have no actual opinion to offer about how intelligent or stupid the American public is, nor whether European stereotypes of America are generally valid. I'm just here to give some NPOV information. :-)
--Jimbo