http://news.independent.co.uk/world/ame ... 309432.ece

Hola! Trinidad drops English and learns to speak Spanish
By Elizabeth Davies
Published: 01 September 2005

English is the language of almost all of its inhabitants. Football and cricket are its national sports. And its main business hub is called Scarborough. But, eyeing the markets of Latin America seven miles off its shores, the former British colony of Trinidad and Tobago is rejecting its Anglo-Saxon past and aiming to be Spanish-speaking by 2020.

Children returning to the classroom this month will take obligatory Spanish lessons, and civil servants are also expected to reach a basic level of Spanish, at present spoken by just 1,500 of Trinidad's 1.3 million citizens. Thirty per cent of public employees are to be linguistically competent in within five years.