no cuelgue, por favor

I just called a hospital in El Salvador on behalf of our sales department, to try and get a doctor they'd met at a conference on the line. They'd hit a brick wall when the secretary there didn't speak English.

I made some progress (arranged to call back in an hour) but it was ugly. I get nervous and the words don't come out right.

Whereas according to the 2000 decennial census of the population, 9.3 percent of Americans speak both their native language and another language fluently;

Whereas according to the European Commission Directorate General for Education and Culture, 52.7 percent of Europeans speak both their native language and another language fluently;

-- Senate Resolution 28 Designating 2005 as the "Year of Foreign Language Study"