I’m sure you are all excited about the year when your relatives realise that teaching a language is something worthwhile because Ban Ki Moon supports it, but it seems some people are not on board:

“While the rest of the world lines up to support the U.N.’s International Languages Year, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Dr. Zalmay Khalilzad has announced that America’s participation remains problematic. The Bush administration is claiming that languages are theories, not scientifically-proven facts, and the president himself recently affirmed his belief that God created English in just six days and promised to veto the use of federal funds to teach language evolution to impressionable children. ”

From the Web of Language via Language Log