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SF - The Spanish didn't "conquer" America. They discovered America, then conquered Mexico. The English "conquered" America, and through some strange coincedence, Americans speak English and Mexicans speak Spanish. Neat!
cgrrlll - You're wrong, simply put. I live in California, where many Mexicans live completely English-free lives- and my daughter's public school is hampered by the handicap of teaching a multilingual class, majorly. As a matter of fact, the parent teacher's association meetings are held in Spanish, then translated for the English speakers. (The Asians and Eastern Europeans are apparently on their own) My college Italian teacher continually tells us "This is not like the Spanish sound..." or "For you Spanish-speaking students..." Well, excuse me, but my family has been on this hunk of rock for as many generations as we recall, why should I have to be given short shrift to someone who refuses to learn? It's not as if this issue doesn't affect me, living in the San Fernando Valley, I'm faced with it every day.
However, that's not what you're wrong about. Prior to living in Los Angeles, I lived in Dallas, Texas, and mnay of my friends and family live in Dallas, Fort Worth, San Angelo, and Houston, and the only ones in this group who speak Spanish are the few who learned it in High School- something many of my classmates did in OHIO, where I graduated from HS. Folks in Texas aren't any more respectful of Spanish speakers than anywhere else... did any American here graduate from a HS that didn't require a foreign language? I took French and German in HS, and I'm in Italian 2 as an adult. I have desire to learn about other cultures, but I'm not going to be brainwashed into thinking this isn't an English-speaking country.
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