<< I talk to young professional people all the time who only expect to spend a small portion of their career in the U.S. >>
You're presently 'talking' to one who is literate and fluent in Mandarin and speaks three Chinese Dialects and Arabic and several other languages; who is, today, sitting less than two hundred and fifty miles from China -- and who has spent three quarters of his adult life in Asia, Africa, North Africa and Arabia.
And who still stands by what I wrote.
English in 2006 is what Esperanto long ago strived and failed to be!
Best ones - B A
http://www.kafejo.com/lingvoj/auxlangs/eo/tradukilo/
So, are you seeing the same thing in regards to young people?
Two of the places you were not in for a long time (or were not mentioned in your post), Europe and Latin America stubbornly seem to take up British English rather than American English. Obviously out of jealousy. One was a former power looking at a former colony. The other should be peers but are far behind the United States.
!!!!!
If you weren't a fellow FReeper, I'd have to call BS on that! I want to ask the rhetorical question, "Do you know how hard that is?, but obviously you do.
Arabic AND Chinese? I'm impressed as he!!
I looked up your home page. So I have a new tagline. Thanx.
"English in 2006 is what Esperanto long ago strived and failed to be! Best ones - B A"
Pardon, what do you mean by that last sentence "Best ones - B A"?
Just as French once was.
Curious, then, how you managed to misuse the word 'presently'. But it appears you are in fairly good company.
pres·ent·ly (prĕz'ənt-lē) pronunciation adv.
1. In a short time; soon: She will arrive presently.
2. Usage Problem. At this time or period; now: He is presently staying with us.
3. Archaic. At once; immediately.
USAGE NOTE An original meaning of presently was “at the present time; currently.” That sense is said to have disappeared from the literary language in the 17th century, but it has survived in popular usage and is widely found nowadays in literate speech and writing. Still, there is a lingering prejudice against this use. The sentence General Walters is presently the United States Ambassador to the United Nations was acceptable to only 48 percent of the Usage Panel in the 1999 survey.