Brokepilot,
You are completely wrong. There are five languages approved by ICAO. These are English, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese.
Within states where the above languages are the official language, air traffic services must be provided in English, but the local language may be used by aircraft from nations where that alternate language is the official one.
Thus aircraft from French speaking nation may speak French to French controllers within French airspace or within the airspace of other French speaking nations. The same applies to the other ICAO approved languages. I may be slightly off on some of the detail above and stand open to correction.
As 123.45 is now officially approved as an pilot-to-pilot frequency worldwide when outside normal VHF coverage, pilots may speak whatever language they wish to use.
I do however agree with the view that all aircraft should use one common language for flight safety reasons. However, until ICAO change the rules, we all have to live with it.
Blocking transmission in the way I described, is just plain ignorant and doesn't advance flight safety arguement one jot.
[ 03 August 2001: Message edited by: packsonflite ]