How often have you met non English speaking Americans?

Relevant-Emu5782@reddit

There are pockets of hassidic Jews who grow up speaking only Yiddish, never learning or being exposed to English.

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MamaPajamaMama@reddit

Yesterday a friend's truck got a flat. We made it to a gas station and a guy nearby was kind enough to help us out, until the tire wouldn't come off due to rust on the inside. Another guy wandered over and helped, and it was clear he spoke very little if any English. However it was this dude who figured out the way to lever the tire off.

Proof-Introduction42@reddit

many in south florida are foreign born

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nope-its@reddit

How would you know if you always assume if you hear someone speaking a different language and don’t seek out information?

There are several federal laws that mandate teaching non-english speaking students in their first language as they learn English

https://www.justice.gov/crt/fcs/TitleVI

https://www.congress.gov/bill/93rd-congress/house-bill/40

https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/laws-preschool-grade-12-education/every-student-succeeds-act-essa

Every state has to adhere to these laws

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Takeabreath_andgo@reddit

We even have Haitian Creole public schools. It’s not just Latinos

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Were they speaking Swiss German? It’s much different than German. In Bern, the Swiss capital (you know the Bernese bears) they all speak Swiss German. A completely different language. I learned it when ai moved there one summer..

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real415@reddit

These communities were really common until 1917 when the U.S. entered the Great War. My great aunt was born in the 1890s, and grew up in one of these places, where all business was conducted in German, they read a German newspaper, and attended church and school in German.

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Yep one of my favorite possessions is a beer stein celebrating Columbus centennial which was a few years before WWI. It’s covered in German script

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cathemeralcrone@reddit

My neighbor was born in 1937 in South Dakota, and he grew up speaking German. His family was Hutterite. He didn't learn English until he was an adult, because their colonies have their own schools through 8th grade. He still has a strong accent. There are still several Hutterite colonies in this area, but they seem to be bilingual. I've never met any of their children, though.

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Me thinks you've never been to Central Pennsylvania

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ElijahNSRose@reddit

Me thinks you'd lie even if you've been there.

I work for Fedex, so I'm the one bringing the Amish things they can't make themselves. From Dennis, KS to HWY-169 about half the farms are Amish, and I've spoken to enough of them to say they're not archaic nor are they zero-tech. They are zero-VICE.

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krept0007@reddit

Why would I lie about being to Central Pennsylvania? I kinda live in this state lol

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Takeabreath_andgo@reddit

You don’t realize how different each group is based on location and Bishop then. They don’t all work construction.

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ElijahNSRose@reddit

You kind of highlight part of the problem where not even Amish bishops know what even half the Amish are doing, but this is a verbaitim conversation I had:

Me: "Is this the house of Immanuel Schwarz?"

Amish lady with sucker in her mouth: "Yep."

I've made small talk with these guys to say English is a first language. No accent.

And even if that weren't so, High German is extinct. If they spoke German they'd have formed their own dialect centuries ago. That's just how lanugages work.

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rottenbox@reddit

There are large differences among different groups of Amish and Mennonite communities. Old order are more horse and buggy, no electricity while other groups are much more integrated into modern society with cell phones, computers etc. I went to school in an area with a fairly large Amish and Mennonite population (grocery stores and malls had horse parking for example) so worked and studied with a variety of different levels of integration. Some were very limited technology, some were technology is fine for work (order auto parts online for example) but not entertainment and some just focused on the reason for using it.

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real415@reddit

Most Québécois learn French as their mother tongue, not as a second language.

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ElijahNSRose@reddit

They like to lie about that.

It's mandatory to learn FRENCH in school.

I'm from the part of America where people like to lie about the quality and price of food at local markets vs super markets. It's all the same thing: Pretending to be a different.

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real415@reddit

Proof-Introduction42@reddit

the Miami people who were born in the U.S. know english, even if they prefer not to speak it

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Sensitive-Chemical83@reddit

I know it's called "Old German" but it's technically a dialect of "High German" just with 200 years of mixing with English and being isolated from other German languages.

Adding Arkansas to the list. I'm Hispanic so I'll run into folks from all over Latin America from time to time that don't know English.

Puzzleheaded_Math973@reddit

Legitimately, you can get by in Chicago with just polish in some areas.

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You're right, it refers to two particular continents, an entire hemisphere. And yes, I understand that often when people use the term they mean USA, which is why I said exactly that.

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

“The Americas” is the generic term for both continents, never just “America” in English. And no, the western hemisphere isn’t referred as “America.”

And yes, I understand that often when people use the term they mean USA

Not “often,” exclusively in English. In contemporary English, this usage is almost universal.

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Hairy_Debate6448@reddit

It’s not very common for “US-born” Americans to not understand or learn English, but it’s more common for permanent residents/people here on visas (or even new U.S. citizens) to not know English. Most of them reason that their kids should learn English though, considering they’re going to be going to English speaking schools and presumably are going to live in an English speaking country. If the kids don’t know English there are classes and programs in our schools to teach them. It’s not a prerequisite or anything but it will make your life 1000% easier when you’re trying to do literally anything since you can actually communicate with people without extra resources (like a translator).

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Word2DWise@reddit

I don't know about "Americans", but non-english speaking people, very often in California, Oregon, and Washington.

Honestly, I'm surprised by how many people that live here don't have a grasp of English, sometime after living here for years. I don't know if it's laziness, mental capacity, or a combination of all of the above.

I moved here when I was a teenager and I was fluent within a year and my accent was gone within 2-3.

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ExtremePotatoFanatic@reddit

Pretty much every day. I live in the metro Detroit area and we have a lot of Arabic speaking people. I work in pharmacy and some our patients do not speak English at all and need help communicating.

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Travelsat150@reddit

In Los Angeles schools I think there are over 100 languages. After Spanish you’ve got Mandarin, Russian, Hebrew, Armenian…and depending on your neighborhood the parents don’t necessarily speak English. We were first at Beverly Hills school district and many of the moms spoke Farsi (from Iran/Persia). Then moved to the valley and in one area half the kids spoke Spanish and half Armenian. The kids could almost all speak English though, and I do remember a new child who had just moved into the neighborhood who only spoke Russian. I worked with him and he was very respectful and sweet. It’s so difficult in the first few months when you can’t understand what people are saying. Now I’m guessing with translator apps it’s much easier.

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Il_Will@reddit

Here, a lot of kids grow up in Spanish speaking households but are educated in English, so they wind up being English dominate by 10, and their Spanish doesn't progress beyond that - so they can talk to their abuelas but not write a work email.

No, it's not.

You must pass a test of English language skill to be naturalized as a citizen of the US

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V-Right_In_2-V@reddit

Yeah I’ve only met immigrants that didn’t speak English. I’ve met naturalized citizens that speak crappy English. But never met anyone born here that couldn’t speak English

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DifferentWindow1436@reddit

Are they residents, or actually naturalized or native born? I am in my 50s and have never met an American that doesn't speak at least functional English. Definitely not native born, but even naturalized they were functional.

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zeprfrew@reddit

I work at Walmart. They require documented proof of legal eligibility to work before hiring and they do not sponsor work visas. Everyone there is either a citizen or a green card holder.

Streamjumper@reddit

One of my grand uncles who came down from Quebec and became a citizen started losing his English as dementia progressed. Many days he was mostly stuck speaking French. Not quite what you were asking for, but this is the biggest one.

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They-Call-Me-Taylor@reddit

I would guess, fairly uncommon for a US-born and raised individual to not know a t least a little English. I live in Texas so I encounter people who cannot speak English every once in a while. Whether they are US-born, I have no idea. If they attended a US public school at all, they will usually make every effort to teach them functional English.

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pragmaticsquid@reddit

I live in the DC area and work as a nurse. I meet people who don't speak any English allllll the time

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Admiral_AKTAR@reddit

Every day and Iv livd in three states in the NE, south and southwest.

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largos7289@reddit

Around my town we are getting huge influxes of Spanish people that don't speak English, like not even a little. It's a huge problem. I just couldn't even imagine trying to live in a country, that i didn't have at least a basic grasp of the language.

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DickWhittingtonsCat@reddit

It’s always been a thing. Look at the German language schools up through WW1- Milwaukee was a German speaking town.

Broke_Pigeon_Sales@reddit

Not often but it happens.

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Tx2PNW2Tx@reddit

Im from Texas and I run a mobile dog grooming business. I actually have quite a few customers who speak Spanish and Vietnamese. So I guess all the time. Idk i dont really think about it. There's always a way to communicate, even if sometimes I have to ask my Spanish speaking customers who also speak English for help.

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tetlee@reddit

I live in Arizona. It's common for cash in hand or manual labor jobs there is just one person that speaks English to talk to the client.

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the_throw_away4728@reddit

Many times!

I live in a diverse area…I’ve met plenty of people who only speak Spanish, Arabic, one of the Chinese languages, Hindu, French, Burmese….there are more!

I teach elementary school and our area has many people to move here for work (tech industries) or because of refugee status. I’ve taught many kids who don’t speak English, and their families don’t either!

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KamtzaBarKamtza@reddit

OP asked about US Born people who don't speak English. Does your answer still apply?

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the_throw_away4728@reddit

Ah I was focused on the title. Part of my answer applies- I’ve met several students born here who only spoke their family’s primary language coming into Kindergarten. Although by second grade typically they also knew enough English to be considered bilingual.

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KamtzaBarKamtza@reddit

Yes, school is often the engine of assimilation. Which is why I don't think that it ever makes sense in the US to have primary instruction happen in a language other than English.

If kids come to America with zero English skills then it makes more sense to put them in English immersion lessons to gain enough proficiency that they can join a regular classroom

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DaneLimmish@reddit

Almost all of my neighbors are fluent Spanish speakers. The neighbors across from me speak Arabic.

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Just1Pepsimum@reddit

Pretty often I do HVAC at a few Mexican restaurants. The kitchen staff and most of the out front staff we have to use a translator on our phones to communicate.

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No one's "insulted" by the idea of American born citizens... But keep up your idiot ass trolling.

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The_Motherlord@reddit

You can get the data on non English speaking citizens from census data https://www.census.gov/data/academy/resources/one-pagers/language-use.html

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P00PooKitty@reddit

I live in the northeast. So always constantly?

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Pemminpro@reddit

Its not super common, But I've encountered Amish, Spanish, Cajun and Creole native born US citizens who have only spoken their ethnic languages

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sluttypidge@reddit

Every day at my work. We just get Globo out which has quite a few interpreter options.

Depends on where you live. I was raised in Silicon Valley. Many different ethnic people over the decades.

Probably not so much in more rural areas.

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Jp95060@reddit

Everyday, mostly Spanish speaking but I live in California.

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Comfortable-Waltz452@reddit

I live in Northwest Iowa, small town. Out of 300 people living there about 15 don't speak English beyond saying hello and thank you.

All the time

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BigReception7685@reddit

Considering roughly a third of our population in Texas (also in NM and Cali) speaks Spanish, it's definitely helpful to learn, even if just a little. Most Spanish-speakers here are bilingual, but it's not uncommon to encounter someone who doesn't speak English, or not particularly well.

You'll still come across people who don't really speak much Spanish or English though. My little sibling's friend in elementary school's family spoke Taiwanese and not much English, and my mom is acquaintances with someone who speaks Haitian Creole. Most languages I hear people speaking that aren't English or Spanish are from Asia. It actually was kind of crazy to me traveling up to the Northeast and hearing other European languages like French or Polish being spoken out and about.

Back in ye olden days, central Texas also had a lot of Texas German speakers, but sadly, since WWII the dialect has nearly died out :(

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juliabk@reddit

I grew up in Houston. This was back in the 60s. Our neighbors across the street had family in…I want to say Rosenberg who only spoke Czech. There was a strong community there. And while the lady across the street spoke barely accented English, the generations before her didn’t. They’d been in Texas for generations. And the other side of the family were from a German speaking area. His English was unaccented.

For US residents who are not naturalized, English proficiency is even lower than citizens, of course (indeed, many permanent residents are actively studying English in school).

bananapanqueques@reddit

I grew up in Texas, so it was not uncommon. When my great-grandmother immigrated from Czechia, she learned Spanish before English because Spanish was dominant in her corner of Houston.

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TheCloudForest@reddit

Yes, if you aren't a Hasid or Amish, the chance of being US-born and raised and not speaking proficient English is essentially zero.

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turdferguson3891@reddit

There's also Puerto Rico.

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I think there is also a very large scale of fluency though. That is a huge factor in my opinion.

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RainbowCrane@reddit

Apropos of nothing… I used to work in Oakland (I’m a Midwesterner who lived in the Bay Area for 3 years around 2000). Is Oakland still heavily influenced by memories of Japanese internment camps? A few of my friends who were 3rd generation Japanese Americans were HEAVILY pushed by elders to fully “blend in” because of their elders’ experiences having been imprisoned.

Indian Americans, by contrast, spoke “Hinglish” pretty commonly :-)

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alittledanger@reddit

Every Japanese-American I have met in the Bay Area is completely assimilated. Even my sister’s best friend who moved back to Kobe in 5th grade still retains her American accent when speaking English. There isn’t a large Japanese community in Oakland (especially compared to other nationalities) and the Japanese community in SF is also fading.

SabresBills69@reddit

not all of them. spanish was the language of those who lived in the southwest since 1800. you have pockets that have their dialect still used. you also have native Americans who still use their native language. if you live in a small town/ community near the Mexican border do you need to use English to get by?

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President Van Buren spoke better Dutch than English.

The subject of the thread reminded me.

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Prowindowlicker@reddit

Like all the time? I live in the American South and before that Arizona.

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Turdulator@reddit

I know a bunch of people who don’t speak English…. My city is in walking distance of Mexico, and several of my friends where I grew up (no where near Mexico) had grandparents in their home who didn’t speak English (a bunch of different other languages)

If you are asking about American citizens, I don’t really know because don’t usually ask casual acquaintances about citizenship. It’s generally something I don’t care about.

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ApprehensiveAnswer5@reddit

I don’t meet a lot of adults in my current day-to-day who are born and raised in the US that don’t speak English, but I do meet a lot of US-born small children that don’t speak English until they’re school age because their parents do not speak English.

I was a social worker in South Louisiana and there are people there who have been in Louisiana for generations that speak marginal English.

Depending on how deep you go, there are further regional dialects making communication difficult even if you do speak Cajun French.

Plenty of times we’d take several people with us- a Cajun French translator, a regional translator who would translate to the Cajun French person, and then someone hyper local as well.

Outside of that, I am in Texas now and don’t meet many, or any?, adults or older children with limited English skills that were born and raised in the US, but do meet a lot of small children, in the sub 5yo range.

Their parents don’t speak English, so unless someone else in their home or daily life does, they don’t learn English until going to sch

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nocranberries@reddit

I'm from Oregon and I somewhat frequently interact with usually older people who are immigrants from Latin America or Asia who don't speak a lick of English. Some older eastern Europeans as well on rare occasion.

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Easy_Yogurt_376@reddit

There are zero people who are US-born and raised who don’t speak English. In fact, it’s a much higher chance that a first generation American speaks only English even if they grew up with other languages at home. It would be impossible and require some serious neglect (ie truancy) to be raised here and not speak it. Even immigrants will know some English to get proper documentation. Very different from undocumented immigrants who can get by staying/surviving within enclaves which is common - but those aren’t citizens.

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Amockdfw89@reddit

In Texas I meet plenty of monolingual non English speakers but Spanish speakers is the only one I’d say has a large like “born in USA but can’t speak English” population.

alwaysboopthesnoot@reddit

A lot. I went to college in a major metro, worked at a university hospital, my husband comes from an immigrant family and so did my grandmother. Her mother never learned English and my husband’s grandfather wasn’t fully conversational, either.

His dad did ok, but worked in a steel mill and died very young. He kinda sorta spoke English. His aunts didnt until they were in their 40s/50s and became grandmothers, and then not very well.

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Normal_Occasion_8280@reddit

North Florida Crackers supposedly speak English but I can't understand them.

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Titus-V@reddit

In Puerto Rico… like 75% of the people

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bubblyH2OEmergency@reddit

of course

It happens when people are part of a community where the community language is different.

The US isn’t called the melting pot for no reason, and the US only had an official language decreed in 2025.

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xxxHAL9000xxx@reddit

Its very uncommon unless you are talking about immigrants. It was more common 50+ years ago but those people are dying out. I once had an employee who’s grandfather only knew cajun french. That was 30 years ago and at that time the grandfather was around 90.

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Judgy-Introvert@reddit

I’ve met plenty of people who live in my city and don’t speak any English. Where they were born however, I do not know. I can only assume it was elsewhere.

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Easy_Arugula935@reddit

I live in a city with a large Deaf population, many of which don't speak any English.

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El_Polio_Loco@reddit

Completely zero English, almost never.

But I meet plenty of American who can barely speak English and can’t read it.

I can't think of any off the top of my head.

There is a family I see at school events, where the mother needs an interpreter, as she speaks mostly Spanish. But, I don't think she was born in the US and I know her children speak English.

sunbleach_happypants@reddit

I, just today, had a conversation with a neighbor who did not speak English. We mostly spoke in body language, voice inflection, etc.

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Of course. The US is a very diverse place. I've met people who spoke mostly or exclusively Spanish, various Native American dialects, Chinese, Yiddish, and French.

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LetsGoGators23@reddit

My friends parents came from Greece, lived in an insular Greek community (Tarpon Springs) and never learned English, even after 50 years. They watched Greek TV on a satellite dish!

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SabresBills69@reddit

my dads side of the family came from Italy. his mom was born there. i recall as a kid in the 70s at my grandmas or great grandmas all the Italian spoken. my great grandma spoke very basic English. others spoke little English.

more recently an ex gf was from South America, she came here in her late teens. she spoke englidh with an a ent . she had problems with more complicated/ uncommon words. her step mom and some relatives spoke very little English. I had conversations with her step mom using translation places you can get online

m

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alvinochipmunko@reddit

I live in South Florida and it is common to run into people who only speak Spanish, Portuguese or Haitian Creole.

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DineenMattingly@reddit

As a teacher I met many American born kids who only spoke Spanish.

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drsfmd@reddit

How common is it for US-born Americans to only speak a non-English language only?

It's pretty common with immigrants. It's exceedingly rare with US born and educated people. Even if they exclusively speak the other language at home, they still know English.

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zusia@reddit

WA state- very common to hear Spanish and Korean from non-English residents. I love the diversity.

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addann9@reddit

sometimes but they’re usually very young and not in school yet, so they speak spanish at home with their parents, who are usually immigrants. i don’t think i know anyone born here who is older than like 5 and doesn’t speak english

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heyitsxio@reddit

I think I've told this story before, but I knew a guy in college who was born and raised in Manhattan and had to take the TOEFL. The situation was that his Taiwanese parents homeschooled him because they didn't like the public schools and they felt Catholic school wasn't affordable. Then he turned 14 and they were worried he wouldn't be able to get into college if he didn't learn English, so they finally did send him to public school. He'd only been to Taiwan twice in his life at that point but you'd never know it by the way he spoke English.

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idleigloo@reddit

We didnt have an official language until Trump decided he didnt give a fk about our traditions and history.

The Founding Fathers determined an official language would go against the core values of the US when they made the country. We had no official language until March 2025.

I've only met a few Americans who didnt speak any english language. Those few instances were born here but raised exclusively in areas of their heritage. Probably illegally. I think a child's education has to legally include english (though not exclusively).

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Adventurous-Chef8776@reddit

Quite a few. And I am all in favor of knowing more than one language. This should be done in grade school.

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anneofgraygardens@reddit

The only US born American i can think of who doesn't speak English is a family friend. When I was little my family was friends with a French family who was living in the US temporarily. Their younger daughter was born during this period. I remember playing with her and she spoke English then. But they moved back to France and years later I visited them in Paris and she no longer did.

I've used my German to communicate with Pennsylvanian Dutch speaking Amish before, or the version of German they speak. It's not entirely the same language so there's a little difficulty in doing it.

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jaydee729@reddit

All the time.

True story. My mom was born in the US in a non-English speaking home. Married my total white bread dad. Her grandmother spoke no English whatsoever. The grandma used to make fun of my father in front of him.

Fast forward forty years. My brother brings his fiancé’s parents to my folks house to introduce everyone before the wedding. According to my mother, they had a lovely 3-hour conversation. Their family spoke a different language than my mom’s

I met the in-laws at various functions over time. They in no way spoke either English or my mom’s native tongue. But my mom was carrying on long conversations with them.

I used to live in Florida.

I meet people that don't speak English at all practically everyday, usually in school.

In one of my classes, a girl that sits next to me only speak Spanish so we both talk through Google translate or whenever Spanish speakers are present in the class.

My mother also used to work at some store with a few women who only spoke French, Mandarin, or Spanish.

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