One thing that we did not anticipate at all when coming here was the language barrier when shopping. All of west Miami and the western and southern suburbs are communities of immigrants. We knew that there are many immigrants from Cuba and had expected to hear Spanish spoken frequently. But we did not anticipate the fact that this is a city of mostly immigrants and that the English language is rarely heard spoken. The area is inhabited by people from just about every South American country one can think of. We have spent a lot of time in Texas and California in locations where Spanish is common, but in this area it is sometimes difficult to find help in stores if you do not understand Spanish! We have had difficulty locating English speaking help in stores like Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target and Best Buy. The background music is all in Spanish. Even at Christmas, it was very rare to hear music with English words. We have often discussed the fact that we have less difficulty shopping and feel far more welcome in the towns south of the Mexico border, than we do when visiting West Miami and Kendall. We have gotten to where we usually drive 70 miles into Naples to our west where English is spoken, rather than traveling just 25 miles to Kendal or 30 to Miami, because of the difficulty in getting assistance. 

 We find that in these communities we are rarely greeted in English and when we are,  the help still banter in Spanish with us standing at the counter. On several occasions, we have had difficulty in finding help out on the floor of Wal-Mart who could understand us. Most restaurants do have at least some help who speak our language, but even there we often feel out of place. Even the few anglo residents of the western part of the city usually speak in Spanish. It has been an experience we will not soon forget and I doubt that we would ever consider returning.