The Army thing is different. In fact, the military encourages it's soldiers stationed overseas to learn the local customs and languages and encourages you to adopt much of that so you do blend into the society.
First, we didn't invade France or Germany (well, not recently, LOL) essentially we are there based on a treaty. So in essence, US Soldiers are "guests" of the French or the Germans.
However, when I was stationed in Germany for three years, I wanted to communicate with the natives, so I took night classes at the Volkshochschule (Adult Learning)
I don't think anyone of us expects immigrants to be instantly fluent in English. However, we do expect that if you CHOOSE to live here that you also try to learn English.
Auf Wiedersehen!
TB
