I know what you mean. When I used to travel to Sweden, I was amazed that much of their television was in English. The people all seem to be bi-lingual (at least, with excellent English as part of their linguistic profile).
This bothered me because I worked hard to learn Swedish (which my Norwegian nephews love to hear me speak .. they then do a Muppets "Swedish Chef" routine
).
I think its more than just Scandanavia, though. Did you hear that the President of France had stormed out of an EU meeting because a French business expert had insisted on speaking to the heads of government in English.
We have already lost a lot under the weight of cultural homogenization. Scotloand used to celebrate Christmas on January 6. This date has been all but lost, although my diary last year did call that date "Epiphany or Old Christmas".
Almost everybody in the UK,if asked to describe a traditional Christmas dinner would describe an American Thanksgiving Dinner. But then, we have lots of Scandanavian words in our common vocabulary, thanks to the cultural influence of the Vikings who came visiting us a little over a thousand years ago.
Andrew
John, I just realized that Per had promoted you at the top of this string to "Chef Modreator Long John Silver"
neat title!
