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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: Elroy who wrote (243646)10/1/2007 1:22:35 PM
From: Peter Dierks  Read Replies (1) of 281500
 
"what % of coalition troops could converse in Arabic ... Less than 1%? It's pretty hard to rebuild a country when you can't talk to the population."

Part of that is American culture. In Europe most people speak at least two languages fluently. In the US, people act offended if people converse among themselves in a non English tongue. One could ask what percentage of the troops speak Mexican, French, Russian, etc.

Even in the Peace Corps. the fist thing they teach is English for natives so that the Americans rotating in and out can communicate. Do you wonder what effect that arrogance has on foreign perceptions of Americans? We are not alone in that; the French are known to refuse to speak English to Americans just to send a message.
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