OMG, Really?

English may be predominate, but the US has like six "official" languages... I don't think Korean is included but English, French, German, Spanish and several others are.... we are a land of immigrants (even the English speaking ones!!!!).

There are a lot of angry and disgusted people in this country. Regrettably those emotions are generally misdirected towards the wrong people. People here also often forget that even though our primary language is english, it's far from the only language spoken here.

I am not a native English speaker, and I'm married to another immigrant as well. There is this misconception among some people that those who come to the U.S. don't want to and don't try to learn English. If they only knew how much those people try and wish they could. How many of them study and study. It isn't easy for everyone to learn another language. That lady needs to walk a mile in someone else's shoes.

I agree. My friend and co-worker is from China and has been here since the early '80s. She speaks English but still has a very heavy accent and articulation difficulties, primarily because she has very little conversation with people in English outside of work, and even there it's very limited. There was another lady from China who works in our building whom my co-worker was introduced to. My co-worker said "hello" in Chinese and the lady politely said, "no, English, please". She's been taking lessons, but if she doesn't reinforce it by speaking English regularly, she will continue to have difficulties. For her it's a comfort thing. She's easily embarrassed when she doesn't know how to say something, which causes her to end the conversation. I keep at her and patiently try to understand what she's trying to say. She's funny as heck though!

That being said, I'm sure the nail technicians speak English perfectly fine, they just wanted to have a private conversation. The patron in the nail shop was ignorant. Maybe we should pray for HER because obviously she needs some compassion and wisdom enough to mind her business and hold her tongue.

What a b**ch

English, and I mean AMERICAN English, is the most difficult language to learn. It's a proven fact.

That lady needs to bite her tongue. Literally.

I am not a native English speaker, and I'm married to another immigrant as well. There is this misconception among some people that those who come to the U.S. don't want to and don't try to learn English. If they only knew how much those people try and wish they could. How many of them study and study. It isn't easy for everyone to learn another language. That lady needs to walk a mile in someone else's shoes.

I totally understand that. I homeschool my children and have taught them to read and obviously speak. I have also taught them basic spanish and basic latin. The English language is very confusing becuase we have rules that don't always apply, silent letters, and words that are used for more than one meaning.
When my husband was in the military we had a friend that married a lady from Japan, she had kids. They moved in with him, the high school aged boy had such a hard time trying to pick up english, which of course made school near impossible,so he ended up moving back to Japan with his grandparents.

It is rather ironic that she was telling the ladies to stop speaking in their native language just because it isn't native to the USA whilst telling them to speak English...Yeah because English totally doesn't originate from another country in a different continent across a massive ocean :P

Someone should have spoke up and said if she didn't like it, she didn't need to patronize the woman's business. She was nothing more than an adult bully. I can't stand people like that and will 10 times out of 10 say something. I'm polite, but I get my point across. My husband hates it. I wouldn't want my son seeing an adult push another person around for being different and him think that's ok.

People are jerks.

Agreed. I guess she didn't dislike it so much that she took her business elsewhere. I guess she just HAD to get her nails done for the weekend.

It may reflect badly upon me, but I would rather go to a nail shop where the ownership, and employees, speak English.

I prefer to be able to converse with the person working on me, that's all.

---

running for the exit like a scared chicken..

But OP said they did speak English to the customers. Who cares what language they use to speak to each other? Maybe the woman was also worried they were they were talking about her. With such a nasty attitude, I wouldn't have been surprised.

Actually, I wonder about that myself - "Look at this fat one - does she think getting her nails done is going to help her?"

Just my own 'noia, I guess.

But OP said they did speak English to the customers. Who cares what language they use to speak to each other? Maybe the woman was also worried they were they were talking about her. With such a nasty attitude, I wouldn't have been surprised.

Actually, I wonder about that myself - "Look at this fat one - does she think getting her nails done is going to help her?"

Just my own 'noia, I guess.

And I'm sure there are cases like that, to be honest. But I still don't care. If they're going to be shallow enough to talk like that about someone just based on looks (rather than attitude) then it makes no difference to me if they say it in front of me when I can't understand them anyway or if they say it once I leave the shop. It has absolutely no effect on me that they're rotten people when I don't even know what they're saying.

I'd have suggested that b*tch learn to speak Cherokee.

I wonder what language the woman's ancestors spoke when they came to the United States?

I would have said something to her, but that's how I am. No excuses. I call 'em like I see 'em. She's probably right about the employees saying nasty things about her. I know I would!