[pest]

No, I dont agree. But then again, I am not nearly as negative toward life in general as you are either. I think most tourists do bother to try to learn the language. Or they book the english friendly tours, or whatever.

Americans, as a practical matter, just dont have the same need to know multiple languages. I have studied several alternate languages, but couldnt speak more than a few phrases, mainly because I never had a chance to actually speak them. I dont think that makes me rude, or arrogant or a bad citizen. I think that people that rely on tourist dollars, shoudl cater to those tourists. My state lives and dies by the tourist dollar. I see the europeans, some that dont speak the langauge. We have european hotels, that cater to those tourists. They arent hard to find. They are the ones with the european fashion sense and teh little translation books.