You don't need to know English

A person from India came to a room in Skypeland and talked about how he approved of requiring people to know English to pass the US citizenship test. Immediately someone with an American accent interrupted and said that you did not need to know English to live in the US and that he took offense at this.

The Indian explained over and over and over that all he was saying was that you need to pass an English exam to pass the US citizenship test, over the increasingly heated objections from the person with the American accent. The person with the American accent claimed more and more and more aggressively that a person did not need to know English to live in the USA and no one should be required to know English to live in the US. (Of course, the Indian was talking about citizenship, NOT the right to live in the US, but this abusive and argumentative character refused to acknowledge that or let this minor point go. Amazing what ridiculous things people will fight about).

Finally I pointed out that this was the citizenship law in the US and had been the law for years. I was met with a string of abuse and invective and expletives, and I was told repeatedly how wrong and stupid I was. I said that if he wanted to get the law changed, he was free to do so, but it was the law. I was cursed and heckled. I and the Indian guy said you need to speak English to pass the citizenship test. The American said "No, no, you are wrong you do not need to speak English to live in the USA." We said we are not talking about residency, but citizenship. The American said, "No, no you are wrong you do not need to speak English to live in the USA. This went on over and over and over and over. Eventually, the American was cursing us and telling us we are "fucking stupid and morons".

At this point, I just decided I had had enough from another uneducated fool, so turned off my sound to let him speak to the wall. Who needs to hear more of this kind of nonsense? I should have asked him if he had ever taken the US Citizenship Test himself, but I didn't. Oh well...

I looked at the US Customs and Immigration Service web page where I found that the general requirements for US naturalization include, "an ability to read, write, and speak English":
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=ce2b2cd1f7e9e010VgnVCM1000000ecd190aRCRD&vgnextchannel=96719c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD and this requirement has been in place since 1906:
http://www.ilw.com/articles/2007,0829-murray.shtm

However, if people are old or disabled, they might be exempt from this requirement in some cases:
http://usimmigration.visapro.com/Naturalization.asp, thanks to a US law passed in 1990.

Interestingly, the belligerent American ignoramus claimed that his grandmother who died 25 years ago was a naturalized US citizen who never spoke a word of English. Hmmm... there is something wrong with this picture...

When I went back to check on the room later, this same stupid yokel was attacking the immigrant from India, abusing the Indian for being a "curry Indian" instead of a "woo- woo Indian". This dufus accused the Indian in an obnoxious manner of coming to the US to "run a donut shop." I decided I did not need to hear more racist nonsense from this imbecile and I turned off the sound again...wow...

Later a friend from Australia told me he had also been irritated with this same American, particularly when he started saying how much he hated "niggers" and did not want to live next to them. What a nice guy...