Eklipse,
You are
entirely missing the point.
Once upon a time, the territory which would later become the USA was not speaking English (but a bunch of Indian languages). If the European settlers had lived up to the same standards modern-day "if you move somewhere, you learn their language"-proponents want to hold modern-day immigrants to, the USA would never have
become an English-speaking country in the first place.
It is not about how reasonable it is to expect people to learn (in this case) English, the point is that there's a huge double standard!
Just to prevent misunderstanding:
Yes, I do agree people moving abroad should make an effort to learn
a language in which they can make themselves understood... but with a few caveats:
- I deliberately say "a" language; if somebody moves to, for instance, the Netherlands, Dutch would certainly be an option. Should somebody prefers learning (or improving, or already speaking) English instead, that's fine with me.
I do feel they shouldn't complain too much when not everything in the Netherlands is available in English and to accept they'll sometimes be inconvenienced a bit. I'm not aware of any cases where this has been a problem though.
- I myself am terrible at learning languages; the reason my English is pretty good is simply the result of spending twenty years on learning it. For that reason, I can vividly imagine living in a country for quite a while without as of yet having mastered the local language.
I merely expect an honest effort from immigrants. To the best of my knowledge, virtually all immigrants want to learn the language; if they still haven't made much progress after a few years, the reason is more often than not a multi-year waiting list for language courses... not unwillingness on their part.
I'm against putting a deadline on specific results ("be able to pass such-and-so exam within x years of arrival"), since that would be tantamount to hypocrisy; if I myself would ever go and live abroad, I wouldn't like to be confronted with such a deadline either.
- There really is no compelling reason for a US citizen who never goes abroad to learn another language; if they don't want to, fine. But I do feel that somebody like that should be extremely reserved about making judgements about the speed at which other people (immigrants) are learning English. Learning a language is genuinely hard; if you've never done it yourself, you're in no position to criticise other people for having difficulties with it.
