Obama says it's OK to ask immigrants to learn English

[meadowlander]

11. No, but it's racist to "be offended" by someone speaking another language in your presence

which is what most of the people who complain about this are actually complaining about.

It can take more than four years for a youngish person with average intelligence to get to moderate fluency in a foreign language even when they are immersed in it. So the expectation that people will step off the boat speaking flawless, unaccented English is unrealistic. And older people who aren't good at language may never be able to become completely fluent through no fault of their own.

People need to get over themselves and have a bit more patience with people who are still learning. You notice people bending over backwards to understand Russian or German or Scandinavian immigrants but immediately walk away and not even try to understand a brown person. That's where the racism comes in.