"NotABushSupporter" wrote in message
. ..
Robert M. Gary wrote:

Actually in my travels around the world on business I've never found a
country where I couldn't find an English speaker. All you need to do
is find someone under the age of 15. I would guess that 75% of the
world's population under the age of 15 speaks some English (especially
in Asia ,South America, and Europe).

In parts of the US, you wouldn't be able to find 75 percent of the
population under 15 speaking English. If you believe that 75 percent of
the world's population under 15 speak English, you haven't traveled
enough.

While our definitions of "English" mat vary, otherwise your statement is
hogwash. Even here in Central Texas, with more than our share of
"illegals", and a 25% Hispanic population, there are very few illegals under
15. In Laredo, with a 97% Hispanic population, kids are "workably"
bilingual, and in San Antonio, 60% Hispanic, the choice of language varies
with the location and nature of the conversation. One of the great cultural
crises of the moment involves complaints by older Mexican Americans that too
few of their kids/grandkids speak Spanish (or speak it well). The same kids
I hear almost daily conversing in "Spanglish" are usually quite able to
speak English (although often one might question their literacy levels.

Perhaps they simply don't want to speak English to/with you......

About the only non-English speakers I encounter are very elderly or recently
arrived illegals, many of whom cling to the "No spik Ingles" defense long
after being able to understand the language (or the marketplace versions,
"Spanglish" and "Post Hole Spanish").

TMO