Pressing 1 for English is serious business.

Heh. Guess the sarcasm didn't translate well in that post. I was just trying to provide a counterpoint to the complaints in this thread regarding Spanish speaking immigrants. I just picked French out of a hat. I could just as easily have used German, Russian, etc.

Honestly, if I had the time, I'd work on becoming multi-lingual. I'd greatly prefer that to one unifying language. There are too many phrases and concepts that don't translate accurately from one language (culture) to another. (For instance, according to the Dalai Lama in his book Ethics for the New Millennium, Tibetian Buddhism does not have an equivalent concept for the Western idea of "guilt.") A unifying language could erase various culturally oriented perceptions that have the potential to benefit the whole of mankind. At the same time, I do see how it could put us all "on the same page." I guess I'd just prefer the benefit of knowing multiple languages in order to open historical avenues of study.

Of course, there is the fact that mathematics and science have already presented the world with unifying languages, so an actual conversational language isn't really necessary in order for mankind to progress scientifically.