[djmcmath]

My experience meeting Europeans is that most of them speak at least 2 languages, one of which is their native language and one of which is usually English. It didn't seem too uncommon to meet people who spoke German or French, Italian, and English. Americans really are just lazy about learning other languages. I agree with Steve PH fully -- waiting until 12 or 13 to start learning a second is just too late. But then, there are adults working in professional environments in this country who still haven't attained a basic grasp on English, so ...

But then, the places I've been in Europe didn't seem to do a whole lot of bilingual signage or labeling. It seems like virtually everything was printed in the local language. So while the locals speak other languages, they don't change their signs to say so.

More recently, that's changing. Last time I was over, I noticed signs and labels in Arabic, which seemed odd to me.

Dan