Poor Italy

A few months ago I overheard a conversation between several europeans from various countries. The group included an Italian woman, a couple of men from Holland, a Spaniard, and some others from Germany. They were all speaking English. I started listening to their conversation when they began listing the languages they all spoke. They each spoke the language of their owncountries, and they all spoke English. Most spoke German, too. But only one, the Italian spoke Italian. She said, "See? Just as I said. No one learns Italian anymore. Even in Italy no one wants to speak Italian. In a hundred years no one will even know Italian."

The New York Times has an intersting article about Italy's doldrums.