To Kathleen. Your response is just plain stupid and sounds like an excuse a kid would give to justify a bad result in school. Knowledge of other people's culture and languages is absolutely crucial today. Because of world wide globalization everything is related, what happens here or there has repercussions at home or elsewhere. Just think about your army who doesn't have enough Arab-speaking soldiers and has to rely on dubious Iraqi translators... If it is so difficult for americans (as you say) to learn another language because they have only two borders, then the US should just stop raising its voice in wold matters immediately. Electing twice for president a guy who only travelled to Mexico and can't even speak proper english has provoked enough damage.
Michel
France