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Old February 29th, 2004, 11:40 PM
Jim Brewer
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Default St Maarten Euros Winair

Did you pick up any black people? If not,
you may have been dealing with tourists.


This was kinda my point - that virtually any tourist you run into in the
Caribbean - German, Swedish, Dutch, Italian, etc. - will speak
comprehensible English, because English is now the lingua franca (pardon the
irony) of international business & politics - every tourist, that is, except
the French, because they do it to spite themselves.

My guess is that many black families on
the French side speak English at home.


I've never run into this except in actual British territories and colonies
like Montserrat. Elsewhere, my experience is that the blacks often speak a
patois which has a strong French influence.