My 3 favorite experiences with language as an American:
(1) My Jamaican coworker who I couldn't understand for the life of me and my Ukrainian coworker who my Jamaican couldn't understand at all, the Ukrainian coworker understood the Jamaican coworker just fine though and I understood my Ukrainian coworker just fine. Basically it turns into a fun game of telephone whenever we need to talk.
(2) My former coworker from Haiti who no one but the hiring manager and I could understand, the best part about this is that I didn't know he had an accent. I just didn't hear it somehow. He was a great guy, he went back home a few years ago when his mother passed. Got stuck due to the pandemic and never came back to the company. I hope he's doing well.
(3) My former coworker from Guatemala insisting English wasn't my first language as to him it sounded like English was my second language at best. I've been working on it since then. I still suck at it.
Meanwhile, many africans speak 2 languages in their family, a third one for people that don't speak one of theses two and have studied french and english.
Complaining about bilingual (english + french) positions in the public service is a favorite hobby of anglo public servants, as if the french ones didn't need to learn a second language to get the job... Heck, it's not rare to see/hear one argue that french Canadians should just start speaking english and stop bothering them about their "unique culture"...
damn, bro. It's almost like America is bigger than all of Europe and shares one language, and it's hard to become fluent in a language when there's no one to speak it with. If you are asian or european you can hop in the car or on a train to practice your french or vietnamese, but unless you're practicing Spanish or some specific language kept in your area(Polish in Chicago, Pennsylvania Dutch, German in some parts of Wisconsin) you have no way to practice.
where i grew up in burger land, back in the 80s, the public schools were teaching us all spanish in from age 5 to 10. not like true bilingual education, but we had a spanish class once a week. it last about 2 years before the white nationalists--who panic at the idea of working class people easily communicating with each other--got it shut down. between that and some years working with seasonal agricultural workers practicing their english, i am at the comprehension level of an inebriated toddler. i wish i had more opportunities to practice. honestly, the US should have all its signs in english and spanish anyway, but you know the reactionaries would go info a full blown pogrom over even a whiff of that being proposed.
i remember some small business tyrant in florida in the 2000s called up my work one time and wanted me to pass along his complaint to my boss that our phone system had an option to "press ocho for espanol". he said that our company even offering the option to "those people" was wrong... in FLORIDA... the state with the name that means "land of flowers" in spanish.
The distance from Atlanta to LA is about the same as the distance between Paris and Beirut. There is somewhat less linguistic diversity on the Altanta/LA route than the Paris/Beirut route (because of the genocide).
Fun fact: Some places in Europe "bilingual" is used as an euphemism for students with middle eastern backgrounds. When used like this it carries lots of negative connotations and authorities try to limit the concentration of "bilingual" students at schools as they're seen as the source of all kinds of trouble.
Go easy on us, our 1% needs to keep us stupid for myriad reasons, mostly to stay in power. Don't worry though, they'll come for you next, wherever you are. Likely selling you on some other enemy or distraction.
Canadian here, I am fluent in English, French and Russian. Currently learning Spanish as well. If I can do it at 15y, you can too.
Edit: Uyuu pointed out that its actually easier when you are young and I agree.