I live in a University town that is loaded with legal immigrants — students, faculty, research assistants, etc. — who can’t speak English in a comprehensible form. Also, I had a similar experience while LEGALLY traveling through Europe when I needed to fill a script at a pharmacy for an anti-biotic.
Maybe we shouldn’t be letting in immigrants who can’t speak English and refuse to learn. There are people who’ve been living here for 20 or 30 years and still need an interpreter. Everyone wants to come here; why not take in the cream of the crop? Why not take immigrants who will assimilate and learn our language?
But I agree with the other Freeper. The person in the story was probably illegal.