"Cheese wit’ " is english?
[ol][li]In some places, the “common language” is not English. Try Chinatown in Manhattan or San Francisco, or the Hispanic population centers in Miami, LA, or NY. In any of those places (as well as many others), many are born, live, and die without ever learning more English than they need to use the transit system. Certainly not always enough to walk into a sandwich shop and order without pointing. What’s wrong with pointing anyway?[/li][li]No argument, but that’s hardly limited to immigrants.[/li][li]What does legal residence have to do with language proficiency?[/ol][/li]
The real question I have for you is: Why do you assume that “'mericans” are all proficient enough in English to order a cheesesteak? If they were born and raised here, yet don’t speak English, are they somehow less “'merican”?
My great-grandparents (and probably yours or those of someone you know) came here unable to speak English at all. They set up shop in a German area of Indiana, had kids, and did the whole American Dream thing. Did their inability to speak English make them less “'merican”? If it didn’t, why is it that an inability to speak English now, by people in a similar situation, makes them less than American?
Only the most delicious sammich on earth!
BTW, here is the sign that you can’t point at…
So how do you say all that:
One with onions and American?
One American with onions?
What actual words are uttered?
I’m not sure, never been there. We have one of those mafia-front-pizza-joints in town here. And the guys behind the counter barely speak English. 
Long as I get my sammich, I’m happy as a clam.
I liked the cheesesteak from a mom’n’pop in 3rd street, a couple blocks north of Market, where the workers yell at each other in Greek the whole time. It didn’t claim to have the best cheesesteak in town but it was darn good.
So long as you can make it “with 'shrooms” and they’re the right kind of shrooms, I don’t care what you call 'em. And the greeks didn’t mind when my Mom pointed at the pictures, either.
- decides to make herself a pepito de ternera con queso y champiñones one of these days *
I think onions & American cheese is “wit American”, based on what I’ve seen on Taste of America. Or was it Unwrapped?
We’re going up to Massachusetts for the first week of September and will be in Philadelphia around lunchtime during the drive up. Dunno if we’ll stop by Pat’s or Geno’s.
I haven’t read the thread yet- so this may be posted already… but…
What about the tourists??? Many tourists come to Philly (vacations, conferences) and some might not speak English (oh, the horrors). So how are you gonna distinguish between immigrants and tourists to enforce this asinine rule?
Are you going to check drivers licenses to make sure that American nationals speak English but allow the tourists to speak their native tongue?
Stupid, all around…
It’s “American, wit”, as in with. My usual choice at the corner of Passyunk (where Pat’s and Geno’s are across the street from each other) is “Mushroom, Provolone, wit”. You can always enunciate the “with” if you don’t want to do dialect, of course.
Well, I think the huge difference is that our predecessors wanted to learn the language and had a vast amount of respect for the USA. They wanted to be Americans, with all that entailed. And that entailed learning the language if they expected to be prosperous.
As I’ve said before, my dad is a first generation immigrant from Germany. When he approached Ellis Island, he had a trade, but no language skills. He worked hard to learn the language, served in our military and was proud that he could excel in the field he had trained in.
These days, it appears that many immigrants expect the residents to accomodate them, rather than the other way around. That’s rude and offensive to me. Just one opinion though.
I would require the same thing at my job If I was allowed to. I find it wrong to move to another country without being able to speak the language on a basic level and ordering food is about the most basic thing you can do.
It probably doesn’t matter to anyone, but yes I have traveled out of the country and I have taken the time to become familiar enough with the language to do the basics.
I don’t doubt you can cook like a master but to make that kind of claim, well…I’ll simply have to try one. 
I tried several times to make good ones when I was away from home and living in Ohio but they didn’t quite match up.
I speak no French beyond “bon jour”, but when I went to a McDonald’s in France (hey, I was curious) I got my Quarter Pounder with no trouble. What’s your point?