Peter Paul Olszewski Jr, a judge in Philadelphia, has sentenced four men charged with robbery to… learn English! Hmm, it will likely not help them pronounce “Olszewski” correctly on the first try, sir:

The unusual sentence requires that the four, ranging in age from 17 to 22, return to his court a year from now to take an English test and show that they can speak and write the language. If they fail, the men will have to serve the full two years of the four- to 24-month sentence that Olszewski imposed.

The judge said the ruling was not meant as punishment. “It’s a means to helping them get a better education, getting a better job. Period,” the judge told a local newspaper.

El sigh. Oops…

But several legal advocates questioned the judge’s decision.

“A big concern is the vagueness of the order … because what does that really mean?” asked Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “Does it mean you have to speak the King’s English? Or read Ulysses?”

That’s a big concern? Not, like, the fact that this isn’t really a legally appropriate punishment for a crime but more of one judge’s personal preference for how people should comport themselves? Also, we are fairly fluent in English and even we can’t really make it through the first hundred pages of Ulysses. Sober.

Learn English or go to jail, judge tells Spanish speakers [Chron]