has clouded the perception of any good that this colonisation could bring. Clearly this idea is in regard to European colonisation of other continents, which happened these past 500 years or so- and continue up to, well it could be said until the present day. In particular I am thinking of the European influx into the lands that would make up the United States, and the resultant influence over the local peoples and of those from the immigrant country, be they British or Irish, in the north-east, Spanish in the south and west, and, moreover those of French origin to the south east. ( Generalisations perhaps but they can stand as examples ). And to France it is we turn with their cultural legacy in the state ofLouisiana, their peoples, the music and food all as a mixture with local and free slave population. And none more influential than the Catholic church, with their celebrations and traditions still carried down to the present day. And that must include Mardi Gras, otherwise Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent, when activities and festivities could take place for the final time before the subservience and penitence of the period leading to Easter- or Pâques, as they might say in French.
An obvious question perhaps, but are the English bad at languages? Has the situation improved over the 46 years since this routine was broadcast, with increased globalisation and continental and long distance travel? And will it return to worse state of understanding and fluency in languages, like before, as