Politeness (was Re: my grammar )

> In my experience, continental Europeans tend to take the
>opposite stance, that making no effort to speak the others' language
>is very rude.
>
THis applies to external languages. The history of France (ongoing),
Spain (during the Franco years especially), and countless other european
countries show though that the dominant cultural/ethic group isn't above
forcing all the other internal language speakers to use their language
for official purposes at least though. Apparently politeness doesn't
extend to your fellow countrymen. I personally think the French policies
that pretty much killed off Provencal and are driving the French Basque
dialects into extinction are completely awful. *sigh* Unfortunately
historically Britain has been as bad, and it's probably the fault of the
policies imposed by English dominated governments that Gaelic and Scots
especially are in such bad shape. Welsh suffered, but it isn't quite as
close to extinction as the Scottish languages.