Originally Posted by PersonaNonGrata

Taking a practical approach to this issue, I can't imagine how anyone can function and expect to get anywhere in modern American society without knowing how to speak English. Like it or not, English is the language we use in this country. It is shocking how many people who have lived here for many years and even kids who are born here either don't speak any English or speak it very poorly. I meet many of such people daily. My theory? Far too many accomodations are made and this makes it too easy to not learn English. The main language I notice is Spanish. I understand that it is meant to help Spanish speakers but what it effectively does is provide a reason for them not to learn English. Making things bilingual does them no favors. The more accomodations you make, the less incentive there is to learn.

There are many examples of people who are not native English speakers learning out of necessity. My family, your family, whoever has immigrated here as non-English speakers, have had to learn. For those who have traveled to Europe and Asia, many people speak English because they took the time and made the effort to learn it out of necessity for business or social reasons, or maybe just because they wanted to. Either way, if a German or Chinese person can learn to speak English then there is no reason why any immigrant to the US from whatever country can't.