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My Grandparents, both sides (3), were immigrants.. one Grandfather already spoke english pretty well, and adjusted quickly.. both Grandfathers had lined up factory type jobs before getting here, thru other immigrants.. turn of the century, Ellis Island stock.. the one that spoke english fairly well, married the daughter of another immigrant, she was born here, and spoke fluent english. My Dad's folks learned as fast as they could, his Dad did well in fairly short order, as did most of the men, you work where it is spoken all day, you are bound to learn it, but his Mom had a real tough time.. she understood, but couldn't quite put the words in the right order.. hence, she avoided situations where she had to speak much.. frustrated the hell out of her... to tears many times my Dad always said.. but, she did try..never really got a handle on it.
However.. the ones that deal with the public, it's tough, but they should have some basic command of the language.. and I think that should be recognized by the management. I understand, that more often than not, the people that apply for the lower pay scale jobs, are going to be immigrants, and that is what they get, but, I think it would be worth their while to try and help these folks somehow, learn the basics of the language, would be money well spent on the business' part.
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