My mother and father emmigrated to the U.S. from Norway and Sweden, respectively. My husband moved with his family here from Japan when he was 6 years old. My parents immersed themselves in the culture and language and without any formal instruction, manged to obtain jobs and succeed and later raise a family and maintain both their cultural heritage and their language while at the same time, learn what it meant to be an American, including learning the language. My husband spent Saturday mornings being tutored for 2 hrs. in Japanese and 2 hrs. in English. He was put straight into 1st grade in the public school system two months after coming to the U.S. I understand how difficult it must be to come to a foreign country and not know the language. But I firmly believe that anyone who wishes to reap the rewards of living in a country such as this, should make every attempt to learn the language. It's simply impractical, if not impossbile, for the beauracracy to meet the needs of so many different cultural groups. And unfortunately, I have traveled with Americans to foregin countries who DO expect them to understand English and make no attempt at all to converse in that country's language. Just as bad!