Random thoughts and comments after reading this thread:
Historic Amercian Signs Once Seen in US Business Establishments:
No Irish Need Apply
No Dogs or Indians Allowed
Whites Only
As a percentage of any population, people who are truly fluent in more than one language are rare.
It is very difficult for the average person to become fluent in a second language as an adult.
Many people try for years to acquire a second language, and never attain any real facility with that second langauge.
We've probably all heard of people who speak six languages, but most of us don't have that kind of lingual talent. You can't expect all immigrants to automatically develop a knack for languages that most people just don't have.
Instead of expecting the immigrants to suddenly become lingual geniuses, why don't you expect yourself to become one when you encounter an immigrant?
It's true that many first generation immigrants do not "assimilate" (what a buttsucking concept that is). One of the basic causes of that fact is that (repeating myself here) it is not easy to become fluent in a second language as an adult.
This is THE Melting Pot, right? Aren't most Americans proud of the fact? Then why do so many Americans have a major bug up their ass about this? My guess is that the immigrant's inability to speak accomplished English inconviences the poor, long suffering American.
Yeah, it's probably a good idea to make an attempt to learn the most common language of the country you happen to be residing in....but not easy to become fluent (see above.) Ever take five seconds to consider the frustration of a 40 yr. old Mexican immigrant who's been living in this country for 5 or 6 years, and who is an average person (IQ 100, not 150), and who has been trying all that time to learn good English, and still hasn't been able to become fluent? Standing there trying to make yourself understood by ego-stuffed American who wishes that you'd "either learn the language or go back where you came from"?
Ever take a long look at a good English Dictionary? Ever notice how many words have been absorbed from other languages? So much for the purity of English.......
Or should we all go back to speaking the Old English of Chaucer? Would that be pure enough? And if we did, where goeth pizza, burrito, deja vu, coup d' etat?
The U.S. has no official language, just as it has no official religion, official costume, or official way to lace your sneakers. I hope it stays that way.
And I hope that America will eventually learn from it's past, and Americans will stop perpetrating the kind of behavior our grandchildren will get to be ashamed of when they read about it in the history books.
End of rant.
For now.