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Answering back in English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Romanist Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5283 days ago 261 posts - 366 votes  Studies: Italian | Message 41 of 80 14 June 2010 at 10:34am | IP Logged | ||
As a non-native speaker of English you have a huge advantage! If someone ever tried to insist on speaking English, you could say "Sorry, I'm Danish" - and then switch to speaking Danish. Probably the person would then be glad to return to the local language! Native speakers of English don't have this magic trump card up their sleeves. Edited by Romanist on 14 June 2010 at 10:37am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5454 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 42 of 80 14 June 2010 at 6:28pm | IP Logged | ||
It's not a magic trump card. Switching to Danish would either be seen as rude or make you look like a complete fool. Or worse, both. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Romanist Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5283 days ago 261 posts - 366 votes Studies: Italian | Message 43 of 80 14 June 2010 at 8:22pm | IP Logged | ||
Okay, I'll assume that this was meant as a serious comment and try to clarify things for you: 1.) If someone insists on speaking English to Iversen after he has politely indicated that he doesn't want to, then that person is being rude, right? 2.) If someone is rude to Iversen, he can be rude back, right? 3.) If you honestly think that Iversen (or any other Danish person) who wants to speak his mother tongue is a "complete fool"...well...urgh...what can I say? (Perhaps you also feel like a "complete fool" whenever you speak Norwegian..!? :-0) Edited by Romanist on 14 June 2010 at 10:20pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7377 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 44 of 80 15 June 2010 at 6:36am | IP Logged | ||
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This happens rather often in heavily touristed areas. Now, apart from the case where you (the visiting foreigner) speaks the local language so badly that you are taxing the waiter's/shop attendant's time by babbling in a totally unintelligible way, I share the feeling that it's quite rude to be answered back in English. Especially if English is not your mother tongue and you speak the local language very well. It implies that in the local man's eyes, all tourists are Anglo-Saxon and speak the local language equally bad. Rather insulting in its soft implied way. So I have this system which served me well a few times (for instance in Rome, Italy):
Me: "Mi fa il conto per favore" Waiter (heavy Italian accent in English, far worse than yours in Italian): "Yeees Mister doooo you wante de beeeel ?" Me (big smile and patting the waiter on the back): "Beh, Lei parla molto bene l'inglese. Complimenti! Io invece no lo parlo affatti. Solo il russo - o l'italiano". Ah but you speak English perfectly. Congratulations! Me, on the other hand, I don't speak English at all. Just Russian - and Italian. Waiter: "Il russo, eh? Allora facciamo tutto in Italiano!" If English is indeed not your mother tongue, and you do this with enough cheek, it works every time. The waiter will apologize and continue in the local language. Of course it can't work if you speak with a heavy English accent - you'll have to find another trick. Edited by administrator on 15 June 2010 at 6:37am 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6317 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 45 of 80 15 June 2010 at 7:26am | IP Logged | ||
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That's a good trick that's bound to work, but you'd have to be careful in using it with people you're likely to meet again. If you actually end up establishing relationships with such people, it might be hard to keep up the charade forever!
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5454 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 46 of 80 15 June 2010 at 9:21am | IP Logged | ||
No, but to speak Norwegian or Danish to a Catalan in Girona would be just as foolish as walking around on stilts in funny cloths where you're not supposed to. Some people don't mind if they look like fools though, and that's admirable. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Romanist Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5283 days ago 261 posts - 366 votes Studies: Italian | Message 47 of 80 15 June 2010 at 9:50am | IP Logged | ||
There is a rather important point that is being missed here: this situation would only arise after the Danish or Norwegian person had seen his efforts to communicate in Catalan rudely rejected by the local person. The local person has basically refused to speak his own language (i.e. Catalan) with a foreigner. Okay, but then he had better be prepared to speak the foreigner's language - whatever it should happen to be! That's the way I see it. Edited by Romanist on 15 June 2010 at 10:23am 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5454 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 48 of 80 15 June 2010 at 10:42am | IP Logged | ||
I have not missed the point. Just because someone is rude to you, you shoudn't necessarily escalte the situation by being rude back. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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