Yes, I think it is rather tragic that natives of the usaare not taught -- I
mean really taught, other languages. We all seem to get by our 2 years of
Spanish or French in high school, but most of USA quickly forget it. For many
years I could understand written French, but now even that has gone to the
wayside.  I also learned Hebrew the 7 months I was in Israel in 1975.  That's
gone now too.  It's also a great pity that so many Americans can't read or
write English, their own language. With that in the background how can we
learn to teach other languages?

mag