Face it, we all have things we love and hate about Milwaukee. But, complaining and focusing on the negative leads nowhere. So, in this column we highlight an issue that we think needs to be addressed, discussed and solved. Every "This Sucks" feature tells you why we think something sucks, offers commentary, opinions, solutions and, of course, gives you the chance to weigh in through our exclusive talkback feature.

What sucks: As anyone who has traveled outside the U.S. knows, it's darn near impossible to find a place in the Western world that doesn't accommodate travelers who speak diverse languages. Other than the U.S., that is.

Invite a francophone friend or an Italian-speaking cousin for a visit to Milwaukee and you'll soon realize things aren't much better here. If you're planning on sending them out on the town alone, better provide a phrase book and your cell number.

"It's critical," says Dean Amhaus, president of Spirit of Milwaukee, "in other cities around the world, it's multilingual. We are having some serious discussion about this. If we want to align ourselves to places like Chicago and see them as allies and not as competition, we need to promote tourism. And those people may be coming from places that speak other languages."

Ellen Winters, executive director of the Westown Association -- whose district includes the Midwest Airlines convention center, the Hilton and the Milwaukee Public Museum -- agrees, but says that cost is definitely a factor.

Why it sucks: It's not an issue of an "official language" for Americans. Just as Amsterdam welcomes English-speaking visitors with English signage, so should American cities that want to become tourist destinations welcome their guests.

"It's sort of a statement on Americans as a whole that Americans need to become in tune with the rest of the world," Amhaus says. "We have to learn their cultures and languages as well, not just the other way around."

In bigger cities like New York and Chicago, most tourism offices and destinations like art museums offer brochures in a variety of languages. But in Milwaukee your non-English-speaking friend from Germany will have to rely on pictograms to find the bathroom.

While Visit Milwaukee will open a new visitors center in the Pier Milwaukee complex on June 10 featuring touch screens and an array of printed materials for tourists, public relations manager Jeannine Sherman says all of it will be in English, for now.

"All our visitor information is printed in English," she says via e-mail. "While the bulk of the touch screens will be in English, we would like to include a welcome page that can be translated into different languages by touching a portion of the screen. This area would provide visitors with general information on Milwaukee. Our marketing technology manager is gathering research on other organizations that have done so to see what format would work best for us and our visitors."

The Milwaukee Art Museum, on the other hand, has already taken some steps toward multilingualism, according to Katie Heldstab, MAM's media relations coordinator.

MAM offered French audio guides and Web pages for its exhibition of Degas sculptures, Polish tours of the "Leonardo Da Vinci and the Splendors of Poland" show and Spanish tours -- led by high school and college students -- of the Graciela Iturbide exhibition. Docent-led tours are also conducted in French, Spanish and German, Heldstab points out.

"For the most part bilingual tours are done on a per exhibition basis, where it makes sense. However, becoming more accessible to a more diverse population is something that is important to us and that we are pursuing in our plans for the future."