Forgive me for responding in English; I would be afraid to try out my
impoverished (and never rich) French after so many years of neglect. There
are figures (not necessarily reliable figures) for English use and knowledge
in David Crystal, *English as a Global Language.* From what I remember, 30%
limited knowledge of some dialect of English seems like a reasonable number.
This in comparison with ~25% *fluency* in Chinese. (By the way, anyone who
presumes that English is the only language used in public discourse
throughout the US hasn't been to my grocery store, where English is in a 30%
minority to Spanish - though the Spanish speakers are kind enough to speak
English to us Anglos. And this is in the Northeast.)
As for the rest of the article posted, let me simply point out that to
describe any ethnicity as universally "simplistic" in thought demonstrates a
gaping ignorance of the intellectual history of the culture so described.
Patrick Rourke
ptrourke@mediaone.net
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