We agree: it depends on the willingness of people to learn. I'm just saying to myself that it's pretty stupid not to want to learn the language of one's immedia

We agree: it depends on the willingness of people to learn. I'm just saying to myself that it's pretty stupid not to want to learn the language of one's immediate neighbours, especially when it can eliminate spells of unemployment or double or triple one's salary. I had heard of the Belgian example and am all too aware of Romands and Allemanics speaking English with each other because most don't care to learn another official language enough to do business in it. A couple of other examples that I've seen... - Basel, CH: the German speaking Baslers are litterally glued to a now essentially francophone French city. Every one that I've met speaks better English than French. Of course it's clear that they have little economic motivation to do so. - Wrocław, PL: many of the graduates of that city's fine universities may end up working in Germany (which is about 100 km away) but almost none of them come out of high school or university speaking fluent German. The system even discourages it, maybe because Wrocław (Breslau) was previously in Germany.