How To Learn English...I Don't Know

I think it is very funny how we expect most people to know English.  Even when we go to other countries, we always can ask for menus at restaurants in English.  But I wonder do most people ever think about how difficult a language English is to learn.  I understand that any language will be difficult to learn when you have not been around it.  It also depends on when you begin to learn it.  It is much easier to learn a language, or anything for that matter, when you are younger.  But when thinking about people whose primary language is not English and who are coming to English speaking counties, especially the United States, how do they adjust and learn while working.

Lets just look at three words: rough, though, through.  These words end the same way but are completely different in how they sound.  There are many words like that in the English language.  Also sentence structure is very different.  English in general is just very different from almost all other languages.  Then nonverbal communication brings into account a totally different set of things to learn.  With this country becoming more diverse in a language sense, I believe that we need to become more conscious of helping others with language barriers, especially if we are hiring them for these positions.  We also need to begin to work on our nonverbal skills with these people to help the adjustment.