"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...
David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*) writes:

Next to English, Arabic,
Mandarin, Spanish and Hindi are far more important than French.

It's the other way around. If you can't find someone who speaks English,
the
next language you try is French.

Other than in South Louisiana (and then with mixed and amusing result), I
certainly wouldn't try that progression in the US (and if you think so, it's
even more obvious how "out of touch" you are. Second choice would certainly
be Spanish, even in Washington, DC, trusting that in the crowd there are
some for whom it's the first language and for others learned as needed in
supervisory, commercial or self-interest capacity. While the "Taquerias" of
Chicago line the way to Midway Airport, the sounds of Spanish are apparent
inside the fortresses inside the Loop (although spoken mostly by the hired
help).

Back in the early 60s, when I did a bit of Navy courier duty, French was not
only Tehran's second language, it was spoken by most of the elite or those
pretending to be. Even with anti-US feelings these days, English is by far
the prevailing second language in the country.

TMO