This is America. Speak English.

I work in a very small but diverse group. I am the only "majority", and I may even be considered a minority since I'm Jewish. The other members of our group are Russian, Vietnamese, Indian and Hispanic. And we all communicated perfectly - in English.

So why am I mentioning this? Well, I saw some friends who joined a Facebook page "This is America. Speak whatever language you want" and it set me off. The page description is "Just because you're American doesn't mean you have to be a closed-minded prick," and there are about 50 different versions of the comment "So hypocritical... wish all "Americans" who say they speak English could actually speak English..." Let me just say right off the bat that this last comment has nothing to do with speaking English. This is a way to take a jab at people without supporting your argument. Someone who can't spell and speaks some weird redneck language still speak English and they can still be understood, usually. Hell, there are probably grammatical and spelling mistakes in this blog.

Nothing bothers me as much as extreme right-wing and left-wing views. In my opinion this is so far liberal it frustrates the hell out of me. I don't expect someone coming to America to already know English. And I don't expect them to learn it in a week or a month. But they SHOULD HAVE to learn it. First off it's highly unlikely they can get a job to support their families if they only know their native language. Secondly, how is everyone supposed to communicate if we don't have a common language? If I moved to France I'd make an effort to learn French. Same goes for Spanish if I moved to Spain, and so on. But I constantly run into situations where a person doesn't understand me because they don't speak English. I actually had to put a note in Spanish on my water bottle that read "No Botar" so that the cleaning lady wouldn't throw out my disposable water bottle. If she had been Chinese I would've had to start hiding my bottles.

Look, I know this is a free country and I love that. I love America and I love that it's a 'melting pot'. Hell I love that there are forums where people can be as liberal or conservative as they like. But there is a point where you just can't let anyone do whatever they want. We can't have everything in every language. Amongst your friends and family you can speak whatever language you like. But if you ever need to interact with other people in America, I'm sorry, but you need to speak English.

- Adam