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