Quote: "Now, the fact that Americans regretfully do not seem to have an "appreciation" of/for foreign languages (a cultural and social issue) probably does have a negative residual effect on our (I am American) grasp of language in general, including our native language. But, that dynamic/phenomenon is a dissertation topic, not to be solved in a short, contentiously-presented message-board thread."

I absolutely agree. People who learn foreign languages seem to have much better command of their own language as well. Maybe that's one of the reasons that so many native English speakers have poor language skills - they don't learn foreign languages.