Please Press 1 for English

During the randomness of my job, I have met a few new people. One of them being my new friend Peggy (we're not on a last name basis). She is from SLC and she drives back and forth every day to stand and take pictures for 8 hours a day. UGH... Anyway... today I was reading an email from a friend. It of course was one of those annoying forwards that you get all the time. But it was one of those funny one's that say things like: I wondered why the frisbee kept getting bigger and bigger, and then it hit me. OR: I did not hit you, I simply high fived your face. But my favorite was: Light travels faster than sound, this is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak. ANYWAY... the one that got our attention was a picture of an American flag and it said: Why the heck should I have to press 1 for English? So that is when my friend Peggy said, "why is it that when we travel to other countries they will not accomodate us and start speaking English. So why is it that we as American's have to start speaking a different language in our own country? We have to learn Spanish... this is American. We speak English." So being the quick tongued person that I can be sometimes I said... maybe it's cuz we are nicer people than those from a different country. We all laughed and then we went back to work. But I got thinking... why is it that we have to press 1 for English in our own country? I'm not prejudice or anything. And I often catch myself saying a few Spanish, German or Italian phrases. But I just got thinking, we speak English here. It is our language. We don't go into Germany and ask them to change their phone recordings to say, "For German, Press 1". Nor do we expect them to drop everything to try and speak the language. If they don't understand, they don't understand. And you go on until you find someone that does speak the language. Why is it not please press 1 for Spanish? Make sense? So for all you fellow bloggers, my question stands: Why do we have to Press 1 for English?