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"It wouldn't kill you to learn Spanish."

That is technically correct. I speak more than one language already. Spanish as a language is quite nice. "I speak Spanish to God," as Charles V told us.

However there are several issues here, and none of them are related to the scholarly side of the language.

First of all, Spanish in the USA is associated - whether you like it or not - with illegal immigration, crime, underworld. If someone has to speak Spanish and not English it is a very strong indicator that the person came here illegally. (Tourists from Spain are likely to speak more languages than you and me combined.) Not only there is no value in speaking Spanish, there is often nothing to discuss. I don't want to learn the language only to decline offers of illegal labor, drugs and hookers. I am open to discuss a contract on development of an electronic product, but people who come to me with such offers speak decent English (even if with Chinese accent, sometimes.)

Secondly, inability to speak English - however bad - is an indication of lack of respect. Speaking French is appreciated in Quebec, even if the waiter finally gives up and takes your order in English. But the effort will be appreciated. Here people come from nowhere, speak foreign languages, and expect *us* to accomodate them?

Thirdly, languages are traditionally a strong force (not in nuclear physics terms :-) that binds people into nations. Often when multiple languages show up you get problems - you get large groups of people that are apart from each other - the famous "us" vs. "them" mentality.

Fourthly, people willingly learn a foreign language because of respect for the culture. People learn English because it is the language of business and innovation. People learn French because it is the language of art. People learn German because [see Mark Twain's essay on that subject ;-] Regardless, all these languages have a solid culture under it, about a thousand years of it. The current Mexican culture, as we see it, revolves around crime on industrial scale, from illegal immigration to drug wars. Why in the world would anyone want to join that culture?

It also must be said that acceptance of a foreign language is a sign of occupation, a sign of submission to a foreign power. Reasonable people don't like the sound of it.