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Is it rude or not? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5391 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 9 of 48 16 December 2010 at 4:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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In my experience, except when the speakers are deliberately trying to be rude, the idea that "speaking another language in the vicinity of someone who doesn't speak it" is rude is essentially an Anglo-Saxon concept.
But there is also a cultural aspect to this. In my office (Central Canada, where French is a minority language), there is a mixture of English speakers, French-Canadians (not from Québec) and Québécois. The French-Canadians switch to English as soon as an English speaker is within earshot, but the Québécois never do. I'm guessing this is because the French-Canadians have been told before that it's rude. However, for Québécois, speaking English to another Québécois feels rude, and can sometimes be perceived as a form of betrayal. The French-Canadians all speak near-native English, so this might also be a factor, expect that all Québécois in my office also speak excellent English. Edited by Arekkusu on 16 December 2010 at 4:30pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5140 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 10 of 48 16 December 2010 at 4:33pm | IP Logged | ||
See my anecdote above. It's not just an Anglo-Saxon concept. That said, I think US society in general has become much more accepting of native speakers of languages other than English using their language in their daily lives. Notice I said natives. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| skchi Groupie United States Joined 5755 days ago 57 posts - 86 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 11 of 48 16 December 2010 at 4:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think that it depends on the context. Tracker465's story about the Danish friends is clearly an example of rude behavior.
Your story doesn't sound like it is. If I understand correctly, you were just waiting for class to start or something, and she was talking to other people. It wasn't like you all went out to dinner together, and you and your friend spoke French the whole time, leaving everyone else out of the conversation. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5659 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 12 of 48 16 December 2010 at 5:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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You could always use the good ol' cliche "This is an AB conversation, C your way out."
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| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6021 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 13 of 48 16 December 2010 at 5:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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You could say quite politely that 99% of your waking hours are spent in the company of people who don't speak French. If that was a reason not to speak French, you would never have enough opportunity to practice it to become good at it. You've got to do your homework sometime, right?
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| Doogle Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5529 days ago 20 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin | Message 14 of 48 17 December 2010 at 1:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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So far as I can see, it is rude if there are three people, and two of them speak a language they know the other doesn't understand. In a larger group situation, where no-one is left out, I don't see a problem.
I was once with a friend and her work mates (all Korean) in a car in Vienna, and found it quite rude that they spoke only Korean for the entire journey (despite the fact that they all spoke only English at work (in Austria) so clearly had a good command). I wouldn't have minded had they said the odd sentence in Korean, as I can understand that sometimes it's just easier, but it's really when someone is left out that I find it rude. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| slymie Tetraglot Groupie China Joined 5238 days ago 81 posts - 154 votes Speaks: English, Macedonian Studies: French, Mandarin, Greek Studies: Shanghainese, Uyghur, Russian | Message 15 of 48 17 December 2010 at 2:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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My sister came out to visit me and after a few hours told me she was quite annoyed by me constantly talking to friends in Mandarin as she can't understand. I found the best way to remedy this was after each conversation I would just turn to my sister and tell her what we were talking about, or especially laughing about. Just summarizing is fine I think. It at least lets the person know you aren't talking about them or leaving them out of the conversation. "she said she thinks the food here is great" "she told me her mother is sick" ect. I think after they realize you are just having a regular conversation they will either get bored of knowing what you are talking about, or take an interest and then you can translate a few questions for them.
As for a large group I don't think its rude at all, and of course you aren't going to announce everything being said to a large group. The annoyed person needs to get used to it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| vilas Pentaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6970 days ago 531 posts - 722 votes Speaks: Spanish, Italian*, English, French, Portuguese | Message 16 of 48 17 December 2010 at 2:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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[QUOTE=Arekkusu] .
But there is also a cultural aspect to this. In my office (Central Canada, where French is a minority language), there is a mixture of English speakers, French-Canadians (not from Québec) and Québécois. There are French-Canadians that are not Quebecois? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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