Couldn't agree more...
Personally, I wouldn't dream of living somewhere and not learning the language.

Also, just to clarify for some of the posters above:

It doesn't have to be perfect English, just understandable. I know that's pretty much impossible to quantify, but when no-one you're talking to can understand you, surely there's something wrong?
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 12:34, 1 reply)

Well that's fair enough
But how frequently is their English so bad that they are completely unintelligible? Cases that are that bad, I'd have guessed, are few and far between. But that's my experience to date, yours may differ.
(LongJohnBaldry, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 12:44, closed)

Well, as mentioned above, I got served in Subway by a guy who didn't understand my order once...
And in fact, only last week I was with a group of doctors at work and there was one who none of us could understand. Even the other doctors were nonplussed...
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 15:07, closed)

Also, when I worked in London it was almost a daily occurence
I dealt with lots of hotels and their reception staff were notorious for it. I phoned one once, asked to speak to the head of engineering and got put through to a guest in a room :)
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 15:09, closed)