Learn the Lingo?

[BoxBasher]

Why do <people whose first language is not English> come into the shop and start talking to each other in front of me in their first language? Do they realise how rude it is?

I go on holiday for 2 weeks and I learn a bit of local lingo, to get by in shops and bars. These people come to LIVE AND WORK here, yet dont know a single word.

I've just watched a program (one of many in the same vein on BBC) where people have moved/are moving to Spain/France to set up a business.
The biggest problem they have is trying to get permits or planning consent. Why? You guessed it, because they don't speak the languauge...

A lot of Brits move to Spain and "stumble by" in broken Spanish, relying heavily on the ex-pat networks for daily survival.

You may learn a bit of the local lingo for your holidays, but how far would that get you if you lived there?

Why is it that we judge people by what "they" do, (they meaning Johnny Foreigner) yet "we" (meaning Brits) do the same?

Personally I find it ludicrous that anybody would go to a country to seek work without learning the language (and knowing more than "dos cerveca por favor")

 

[esra_ptrap]

It's surprising how a little effort to speak the local language is rewarded. I started to pick up snippets of Greek and Spanish during holidays there (yes, two beers please was part of the learning experience ) but I have now become pretty good conversationally. The difference in the way I'm treated when they realise I am able to speak their language is startling and they don't mind if I make mistakes ... The effort is appreciated.
Most Europeans speak pretty good English yet Brits (in our arrogance) expect everyone else to speak English ... Even in their country!
It's time we realised that this country ain't the empire it was and that we are just a small part of a much larger growing worldwide community ... If we don't then we will get smaller and more insignificant with each passing year.
Just look at all the emergent areas in Eastern Europe etc. Before long IMO they will have eclipsed this once great isle.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Personally I find it ludicrous that anybody would go to a country to seek work without learning the language (and knowing more than "dos cerveca por favor")

Twee bier graag

Totally agree: want to work, speak the language. Want to stay, speak the language. Want to live abroad, do the locals the honor to learn to speak the language. Makes 'communial' sense, doesn't it?

 

[BoxBasher]

I'll always have a bash at the lingo if I go abroad. Last year found myself in Spain, trying to order food in a bar next to an American hotel/resort in French!

French guy moves to Spain (doesn't speak Spanish), sets up a bar next to a resort where around 90% of the Clientel are English speaking (doesn't speak English) and the remaining 10% are German (doesn't speak German either)! This resort is the only one for a couple of miles in either direction. Only went to that bar once (partly because of the language, partly because of the prices!) Suffice to say it was empty, despite being the closest.

Spent the rest of the holiday eating at a local Spanish restaurant (who spoke English, we ordered in Spanish), a local Italian restaurant (who spoke English but we ordered in Spanish/English), Indian restaurant (spoke English, my Bangla/Urdu only manages Hello! Water man!) and a Chinese restaurant (spoke English, ordered in English my Mandarin + Cantonese only goes as far as hello).

One thing that makes me laugh, is that the staff in Burger King in Majorca and mainland Spain speak a higher level of English than those in Burger King Oxford and a McD's I went to in London...

 

[wanabechippie]

It's not just abroad where the local language gets a-bashing. I live in Wales and I'm still surprised at the amount of people who treat the Welsh as second-class citizens just because they can't understand what we're saying!

I was in the local post office the other day in the line behind two mid-20 year old girls who were having a natter in welsh. The bloke behind me started commenting to me: "oh, it's a horrible language, isn't it?. How rude to be talking in welsh in front of me".

Basically: respect the local language, even if you can't speak it. In my experience, learning the basics of 'hello, thankyou, good morning/evening' does go a long way.

 

[Thermo]

now im crap with languages or i was when i was at school. When i go abroad i always try to speak the language even if its only, hello, morning, please thank you etc. i find the more you speak the more you pick up and learn.

When we were sitting in a taverna in italy we fumbled our way through the menu in broken italian and asked for the bill etc (all from th phrase book. At the end the waiter came out with some frr drinks for us. Funnily enough the table of arrogant americans sitting next to us who didnt even say please and thanks in english let alone italian, didnt get any. they got very uppity about it as well.

 

[BoxBasher]

At the end the waiter came out with some frr drinks for us.

Free drinks? Case closed, no further questions your honour...

 

[Softus]

I live in Wales and I'm still surprised at the amount of people who treat the Welsh as second-class citizens just because they can't understand what we're saying!

Qué?

 

[Thermo]

At the end the waiter came out with some frr drinks for us.

Free drinks? Case closed, no further questions your honour...

bloody keyboard! ive had it a few weeks and its tsill as stiff as a board, bloomin typos in everything!

 

[BoxBasher]

I meant that free drinks is a good enough reason to learn any language.

 

[ModernMaterials]

Absolute balderdash

Who in his right mind would expect an Englishmen to learn 'foreign'

'No speako dago' is all ive ever had to learn. and i make sure i say it slowly to them, in case they can't understand.

 

[ModernMaterials]

ENGLISHMAN* I MEANT oh bugger...

 

[BoxBasher]

Absolute balderdash

Who in his right mind would expect an Englishmen to learn 'foreign'

'No speako dago' is all ive ever had to learn. and i make sure i say it slowly to them, in case they can't understand.

No speakee English either judging by the typo's, grammar and punctuation...

The good old "Say it louder and slower" method - Why buy an electronic interpreter? Just use a tape player and record what you want to say on SP, then switch to LP, turn the volume up and hit play.

 

[ModernMaterials]

boxbasher are you foreign?

 

[ModernMaterials]

and what on earth is a 'tape player'? you cad...