You may have to be from the USA to understand this.

And it did make me laugh.

I like this joke - clearly this is in America - because it illustrates the linguicism and anti-bilingualism inherent in questions like this (as proven by the question details: “i accept it if it’s tourists but if you live here and make a habit of it it’s quite rude. not sure if i’m weird.”)

Fact is, while English is the standard language spoken in the United States of America, the USA has NO official language (or religion, but that's a response for another question), and we should not be attempting to enforce the use of one language over another. America was built on immigrants from all over the world, who brought their languages to our country. American English is a pastiche of the influence of many languages (see what I did there?) and we should be celebrating the variety and colorfulness they bring to our everyday speech, not trying to suppress it.

As other respondents have noted, there are a variety of reasons why a person might speak another language in public, but as long as it doesn't affect you (and if they're not talking to you, it shouldn't), you have no reason to care what another person is doing with their time.

As a bonus, here’s a joke illustrating why it’s good to be bilingual (or at least respectful of linguistic differences): and if you do not know what an Amish is - GOOGLE IT .

An Amish farmer is walking through his field when he sees a guy drinking from his pond, scooping it up with his hand. The farmer says,

"Trinken sie nicht das wasser, die kuhe unddie schweine haben in ihm geschissen," ('Don't drink the water, the cows and the pigs shit in it').

The guy shouts back, "This is America! I don't understand your gibberish! Speak English, you moron!"

The farmer replies, "Use two hands, you'll get more.

JB ADDS:

I was at a funeral in Nebraska decades ago and at the house afterwards where everyone returned for drinks etc. ( about 40 people ) I was with my Mother who was visiting on a 6 week holiday, and a local man took a shine to my Mother and in conversation I heard him say ' You must have been very grateful to us Americans for winning the war for you back in the '40's'

and before I could even open my mouth to put him in right... the Reverend, who by now had had a couple of glasses of something, replied quite loudly to him - 'What utter crap Wilf. We never had to hide from bombs dropping on us out of the sky night after night, year after year.'

And my Mother spoke up and said -

'Every night we would pack a bag and go to the local Underground Train Station where there were wooden bunk beds and hammocks along the platform. After the power was switched off, beds and so forth were also put over the track and thousands of people would bed down for the night and in the morning, we had no idea if we would be able to return home and get on with our day - or find a pile of rubble that was our home and everything we held dear - blown to pieces and please remember, the underground stations are full of rats and we had nowwhere else to go.'

This was a shock for those listening... and the Reverend continued.

' We DID NOT help England in the war at all, we came in very late after being asked by the UK for help three times and three times our good old US of A refused. Oh we did supply them with a load of naval vessels, from the First World War and had been decommissioned and were useless.'

he continued

'America helped itself during the war. We ONLY went in because of Japan and because the USA was afraid Russia would cause more problems. We helped, sure, but that was all we did and the might and the bravery of the Brits was outstanding. Absolutely outstanding. Now, what we DID do, was bleed Europe dry some years AFTER the war ended by loaning - and mark my word I mean it was a LOAN - money to help rebuild the country and we did this for most of Europe, but not as a nice gesture - not as a way of helping Europe rebuild, but to stop Russia rebuilding and invading Europe, and THAT DEAR WILF is how we got so many U.S. military bases throughout Europe and why we have so many U.S. bases so close to Russia. '

Wilf just stood there with his mouth open - and it did cause a funny when my Mother said -

' Close your mouth Wilf, you look like a Goldfish.'

It went into a long discussion with the Reverend and the locals ( Nebraska is right in the middle of the middle and is flat and empty, except for cattle and loads of small towns of less than 1,000 people scattered 45 - 100 miles apart - so not a cultured centre with art galleries and museums - and these very sweet and very accepting people who took my Mother and I to their hearts - these were decent, honest and very hard working people - simply did not know this stuff and had been fed a pack of bullshit in school and through the media about exactly what they had - or had not - done. The Reverend was laughing and having fun sharing a truth - a truth that he seemed to know a great deal about - and he was 'on the ball' and continued stating many things that are untrue about the USA but that most Americans take as truth.

Wilf shut his mouth and the subject got changed, and I have never forgotten that afternoon some 30 years ago and I have since educated myself on this and many other aspects of life that we take as truth, when in fact, is an untruth.

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