Of course as people pointed out, this is far from a uniquely American thing. Also, I'm sure by American they mean the USA, but "Americans" are inclusive of north, central and south America. Here in Europe, we also expect people to speak English as it is the universal language.

As a side note, it is also often commented that Americans (USA Americans) can only speak English. This is a narrow view that primarily broadly looks at white Americans and ignores the fact that the US is a huge melting pot of cultures and for many US citizens English is their second or third language.

It goes without being said, the contents of the picture should never have a reason to be written. Don't be a dick to people trying to help you.

I've been to Thailand. It's not the Americans that are complaining, it's the British and the Australians, both of which also speak English.

Why are you jumping to Americans?

Go from Wales, Alaska near the Bering Strait to the southern tip of Florida. You have traveled 4,580 miles (7,370 km) in 14 states and provinces. At no point were you not in a jurisdiction that was predominantly English speaking.

Mandarin Chinese may have the most number of native speakers, but English has the most number of total speakers, and those speakers are spread much more widely around the world.

The US is a business, economic, and geopolitical powerhouse. So was the British Empire.

I'm not saying that every other language should crawl in a hole and die. I'm currently taking a crack at learning Spanish. But there are pretty solid reasons why Americans make assumptions, even if they are erroneous sometimes.

Probably because if your business is based around profiting from American tourists, you're probably going to need to know some English. It seems to me like when money is involved people tend to find a way to communicate what they need to regardless of what languages they share, though. And obviously this does not excuse rude tourists.

Why’s everyone assuming this isn’t in America? I’ve seen signs like this here and it’s immigrants’ way of saying “listen we’re trying to speak your language well, but please be sympathetic as it’s our second (or more) language”. We’re generally fine with people not speaking English when we’re outside America, it’s inside our borders that we’re tremendous assholes about it

Not a justification, but part of the reason is that English is currently the world's lingua franca.

Because gunpowder.

Gunpowder go in metal tube.

Projectile go in metal tube.

Ignite.

BOOM.

Death.

Human go new place.

Bring Boomsticks.

Native humans = Dead

Native humans = Surrender

World = Dominated

Language = Spread

Language = Become default

The End

Sadly Ever After

(Fun fact most pilots have to learn Aviation English in order to operate internationally. You can thank the gunpowder for that.)

Edit: Lol Lemmy Shitposts doesn't like a shitpost about the british empire taking over the world.