suzukiwookie

I do actually feel bad for someone like your mom. I know that it must be very hard. My parents actually immigrated to Canada when I was a kid, and it was very tough to be immersed in a new culture. But my parents, as hard as it was, learned English and managed to provide a good life for my sister and I. My grandmother is 90, she lives with my uncle and she came from Europe in her 80's, and she has made an effort to learn enough English to be able to converse with Americans. So where there is a will, there is a way.
I still think that if you're going to join American society (or any society), you should actually want to be part of American society. A society is people living together in organized communities with shared laws, traditions, and values. And the glue that brings these things together is language. You can't expect to share laws, understand laws, adopt values or traditions without speaking the language of the group. If you don't speak the language, then you may be living in the vicinity of that society, but you're not really part of that society.
I'm not trying to sound heartless, I know there are a lot of places in this world where human rights do not exist, and people need to escape to a better place, but I think that you owe it to a society that offers to take you in, and provide you with protection, rights and freedoms, to at least learn their language so that you can somewhat contribute to that society.
This is my personal view on it. I hope I don't piss anyone off by saying this. It's not my intention to do so. I just feel very passionate that you owe it to a society to make an effort to belong if they take you in.