Why would they expect him to be able to do business in Italian when he was born and raise in the Bronx?
He's trying to do business with Italians from Italy, he found it odd that they couldn't speak english, yet he (like every other Italo-american wiseguy) can't say anything other than some Tony Soprano-speak. When you do business with Italians (in Italy), they don't like it if you can't speak the language, I don't know how else to explain it.
