Long and Convoluted and Disjointed and Probably Boring

Here are some unconnected and, like I said, rather convoluted stories. They're about a couple of conversations I overheard :

1. At Costco the other day, I became aware that my line was not moving. I realized that several customers ahead of me were two older Chinese women trying to pay for their purchases. They spoke no English, were trying to pay with Mastercard which Costco doesn't take, and couldn't understand why they couldn't buy their merchandise. For probably 15 minutes or more the person at the register tried to explain in various ways that Mastercard was not going to work and that they needed to pay with cash or check or debit card. She probably said DEBIT CARD about 20 times. I'm pretty sure that repeatedly saying a word which a person doesn't understand isn't really going to make the lightbulb go on. Anyway, it started to get a wee bit frustrating and I wondered why the clerk wasn't taking them out of the line to the side and having someone else deal with them while the rest of us DEBIT-paying customers could go on our merry way. Mostly, since I wasn't in a particular hurry, it was a bit comical. The two older women were kind of giggling to each other, though I don't think the clerk or the customers in line were finding it all that amusing. SO. Should they maybe have come with an English-speaking friend? Might've been a little helpful. Were they just visiting? Possibly. Should I be disgusted with them for not speaking English when they're in the United States of America? Probably shouldn't waste my energy.

(If, on the other hand, they are working here and in some sort of customer service position, then yes; I think they should be able to speak and understand English. Like the employee at Ross the other day who couldn't answer my question because she had no idea--none--what I was saying. That was a tiny bit annoying.)

2. The other overheard conversation was between a grocery clerk and some of his friends who were hanging out at the end of the check-out line. They were jabbering away in speedy Spanish, and then the clerk would turn to me and converse in flawless English. The bagger was part of this conversation---Spanish *jabber jabber*; English *jabber jabber*. I was envious of their ability to move so smoothly from the one language to the other. Can I do this? No, I can't.

It made me think of how often people look askance at these "foreigners" since many times their English is broken or flawed. The conclusion is apparently reached that their IQ's must not be very high, and apparently it doesn't matter that English is their second---or maybe even possibly their fifth---language. (In the above case, this doesn't apply. Their English was perfect so there was nothing to indicate that they weren't probably born and raised here like myself. They were probably no more "foreign" than I.)

The thing is, we have it pretty easy here because English is spoken in so many countries. If we visit another country, chances are good that we're going to be able to function just fine because people will most likely be able to speak English. When they are here, English is just one of the several languages that they'll probably be speaking. And just because they're here, for whatever reasons, and they speak with an accent or maybe even broken English, it doesn't make them inferior. It doesn't mean they're stupid. Should some of them be here? Are they legal? Is it right? I don't know the answer to those questions and some of them I don't even have an opinion about. All I know is that I can speak one language. They can speak at least two. Who's the dummy?