In an age of unprecedented migration, growing numbers of people live in countries where daily life is conducted in a foreign tongue. Some maintain that this occasions serious social and practical problems. Although I recognise the genuine hardships involved, I regard them as predominantly transitional rather than enduring.
That a language barrier inflicts real difficulty is undeniable. Practically, tasks that native speakers scarcely notice, consulting a physician, navigating bureaucracy or simply buying groceries, can become fraught with anxiety for someone whose command of the language is shaky, and the resulting misunderstandings occasionally carry grave consequences. The social toll may be heavier still: unable to follow the flow of conversation, newcomers often find it painfully hard to forge friendships or feel that they belong, and isolation, homesickness and a sense of cultural estrangement frequently follow.
Yet these afflictions, in my view, tend to recede with time. Immersion is itself a powerful teacher, and because immigrants are compelled to use the language ceaselessly, most acquire competence sooner than they expect, whereupon the friction of daily life steadily eases. Language instruction, community networks and, increasingly, translation technology can smooth the earliest and most difficult months considerably.
I therefore only partly agree with the proposition. Living amid a foreign language does generate significant social and practical problems, but overwhelmingly at the beginning of the experience. Since those problems are, with effort and patience, largely surmountable, I would characterise them not as an indictment of such a life but as the temporary price of a transition that most people ultimately complete with success.