People bothered by multilinguals and your responsibility as an immigrant.

I lived in Germany for a long time. First as a US military brat and then as a civilian employee for the US Dept of Defense. I knew many retired American soldiers in Germany who married a German, had half-German kids, lived in regular German neighborhoods for decades and never learned the language. It was embarrassing.

I found it shameful as an American for my countrymen to live in this country and not learn the language. The Germans didn’t invite you. They’re happy to have you, but they didn’t invite you. Show some respect and try to learn their language and customs. I was tired of being asked by my friends why Americans are so arrogant that they think they can move to another country and then demand that their hosts adapt to them. After a while I took it personally when Americans refused to adapt — you’re making me, and all Americans, look like assholes!

One of them is hiding a beer. Photo courtesy of Dreamstime.

Germany, especially Frankfurt am Main where I was, is an especially cosmopolitan region. You’ll find any number of people speaking any number of languages. When I went to the…