[Choose Ye This Day]

I could care less if two foreigners/immigrants are speaking between themselves in a foreign language. That's fine--we have freedom of speech in our country, they can speak privately in Pig Latin for all I care. It's annoying and rude, but there's no law against being rude.

When I lived in South America for a couple of years, I would usually try to speak Spanish even if I was with another American, just so the Argentinos wouldn't think us rude. But there is nothing dorkier than two gringo Americans trying to talk to each other in broken Spanish, when we can get our point across 10 times faster in our native language. So, as long as I was just talking to an American buddy, we would often slip into English, for convenience.

What I don't tolerate is when immigrants demand that social services--voting ballots, legal services, tax forms, classroom education, etc.--be provided to them in their native language. That is why they MUST learn English. If you're here in this country for any length of time, you should be able to do basic things in English.

[FITZ]

That is why they MUST learn English. If you're here in this country for any length of time, you should be able to do basic things in English.

It's interesting how more Americans will learn basic Spanish just to take a vacation in Mexico for two weeks --- more than most Mexicans will learn after living in the USA for 20 years. In this part of the country one third of the population speaks no English ---- yet only one fourth were born in Mexico. Many speak a mixture of Spanish-English that they believe is bilingual --- but they aren't understood well in either language.