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Answering back in English

 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages Post Reply
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Sheepy
Newbie
Australia
Joined 5256 days ago

1 posts - 1 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 73 of 80
18 July 2010 at 1:14pm | IP Logged 
I havent had many encounters to be honest, but the ones I have had have been good.

I started talking to a waitress at a japanese restaurant, and told her I was learning
Japanese. I managed to get a little Japanese out but its clear that I was a beginner.
However purposely asked me questions in Japanese like "what would you like to drink?". It
is not an understatement to say that I was incredibly pleased.
1 person has voted this message useful



ReneeMona
Diglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 5348 days ago

864 posts - 1274 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2
Studies: French

 
 Message 74 of 80
18 July 2010 at 2:17pm | IP Logged 
Romanist wrote:

In countries like France, Germany and Holland, there may sometimes be undercurrents of mild racism too - there is almost a kind of feeling that a person is not really "worthy" to speak the language unless he/she ticks the right boxes...

(Of course, such people are in a fairly small minority - but unfortunately they do exist.)


I'm curious to know what exactly you mean by this and if you have met many of these people. I've heard of the French being arrogant about their language and sceptical of foreigners speaking it but I've never heard anything like that about the Dutch or the Germans.

As for the French, I have spent a couple of weeks in different parts of France nearly every summer of my life and I have never had an unpleasant experience with the French, not even as a child/teenager ordering bread or ice cream in broken French and with a probably horrible accent. My mother speaks French, nowhere near flawless but enough to be able to not have to resort to English to get her point across, and she would arrange these holidays and she told me that she had never been frowned upon or replied to in English, not even in Paris.

In a couple of days I will be going to Orléans for a couple of days and I look forward to unleashing my horrid French on people and seeing what happens. If they reply in English, I'll say "Het spijt me zeer, maar ik spreek helaas geen Engels, alleen maar Nederlands en een beetje Frans." Hopefully, that will do the trick. ;-)
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freakyqi
Newbie
United States
Joined 6143 days ago

32 posts - 43 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Mandarin

 
 Message 75 of 80
18 July 2010 at 4:23pm | IP Logged 
A few reasons they may switch to English:

-- When I was in China, I saw that happen to a friend or two, and it turns out it was clearly because the friend had a bad accent and the Chinese person was having trouble understanding them, so they tried to politely switch to English.

-- The native person wants to practice their English.

-- They are genuinely trying to be nice (too nice!).

-- If you're in a tourist area and the person is used to using English, it might be difficult for them to switch back & forth with different people, or their boss might be around, expecting them to use their English skills! (yes, seriously! they may have been hired for this purpose, getting paid more because they're bilingual, and expected to 'cater to you' and use it!)

-- They have no patience to hear your beginner/intermediate level and think their English is better than your ____ so they think they should use the better of the two.


I'd say don't get stuck talking about which language to speak and just keep speaking the target language. Ignore that they spoke English and just keep going as if they spoke the target language, and maybe eventually they'll switch back, or if not, at least the speaking half of the conversation was a good practice if not the listening part.
1 person has voted this message useful



Adamdm
Groupie
Australia
Joined 5450 days ago

62 posts - 89 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Dari, German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 76 of 80
19 July 2010 at 8:45am | IP Logged 
tracker465 wrote:
Sometimes I have to wonder though if some speakers just don't perceive one's level to be high enough, based on stereotypes.


Not quite to topic, but related: On television here in Australia, I have sometimes seen instances when an Aboriginal person,from a remote Aboriginal community, is talking to an interviewer (in English), that what they are saying is subtitled [in English] - even though what they are saying is (to me at least) perfectly understandable.
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Martien
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
martienvanwanrooij.n
Joined 7118 days ago

134 posts - 148 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, French
Studies: Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Swedish, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 77 of 80
05 September 2010 at 2:18pm | IP Logged 
administrator wrote:

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 ?"


Or ask him "Prego? Che vuol'dire   'duiuvante debille' ?" :)
(I beg you pardon? What does 'doo you wante de beel'   mean?)
I think you can feel free to ask the local to speak to you in his own language, especially if you are good enough at it. After all you are the customer, and he hasn't hired you to give him English lessons.

1 person has voted this message useful



Martien
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
martienvanwanrooij.n
Joined 7118 days ago

134 posts - 148 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, French
Studies: Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Swedish, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 78 of 80
05 September 2010 at 2:31pm | IP Logged 
adrian wrote:
I reply in Polish that I'd prefer Polish, to which she says "but English is easier."

In Mauritius I tried to speak French wherever possible and got some positive but some negative reactions. Twice
people told me in English that they didn't want to speak French with me. Once "because you might not understand.. .

If English actually is easier because her English is better than your Polish, then there is not too much you can do about it. If the opposite thing is true, than such a reaction seems rather arrogant and I think you can feel free to say (in Polish) "sorry I appreciate your efforts to practice English but you should have to admit that in Polish we will understand eachother better. By the way, do you know for instance how you say 'admit' in English?".
I don't know if in Mauritius English is spoken very well but I had some experiences with this you-might-not-understand-nonsense here in Holland, I have been working as a social worker for Turkish immigrants for many years and I have a good working knowledge of Turkish, it is even a little bit better than my  English. However a small minority of elderly immigrants needed some persuasion to speak Turkish to me. I refer to people who just utter a row of Dutch words without using any verb forms , sentences like "me telephone lawyer" and if they asked them to repeat it in Turkish, sometimes I got an answer like "if I speak Turkish to you maybe you won't understand me". Sometimes I replied: okay in Turkish maybe I wont understand you but in Dutch I certainly don't understand you.

Edited by Martien on 05 September 2010 at 3:13pm

1 person has voted this message useful



AppleLanguages
Newbie
United Kingdom
applelanguages.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5121 days ago

4 posts - 3 votes

 
 Message 79 of 80
30 November 2010 at 4:32pm | IP Logged 
This happens simply because, while native English speakers want to learn every other language, native speakers of every other language want to learn English :)

In less simple terms, it may be a question of you being a foreigner from a "more important" country. If you go to Portugal and begin speaking bad or imperfect Portuguese, people will immediately switch to (bad or imperfect) English because they do not want to be considered "simple". As someone said many pages ago, it is a question of "hey, we can speak your language too!" as much as it is a question of "hey, we can't understand you very well so let's make this easier for both of us".

Bottom line is, people are NOT trying to offend or shame you. They are being helpful and trying to make the exchange easier for both of you. I have had this same experience with e-mails I write in French or Spanish. Usually the recipients reply in (usually broken) English rather than in their native language, even though I clearly speak it.

Curiously enough, in Amsterdam people were glad to speak English with me, and they all did so almost flawlessly and with a variety of accents, from pure American to "European" to nearly Scottish! In Milan, on the other hand, I nearly went crazy because NOBODY spoke decent English (not even at the airports!), and I don't speak Italian at all. So this may be an exception to the norm.

However, as someone also said, I find addressing people in their native language, however imperfectly or hesitantly, endears you to them. This is particularly true with stewardesses, as somebody also noted above.

Pedro
Apple Languages Portuguese Translator

Edited by AppleLanguages on 30 November 2010 at 5:13pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5347 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 80 of 80
02 December 2010 at 1:41am | IP Logged 
I just came back from France 30 minutes ago (1 cm snow on the ground - chaos at Charles de Gaulle - urgh) and wonder whether people are more likely to speak English to you in the tourist season. This time everyone spoke French to me, whereas this summer I had a couple of cases of people speaking English. Does anyone else have any similar experiences of different behaviour according to the season?


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