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Locals that do not know English?

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
36 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5  Next >>
hrhenry
Octoglot
Senior Member
United States
languagehopper.blogs
Joined 4931 days ago
1871 posts - 3642 votes 
Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese
Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe

 
 Message 25 of 36
14 December 2011 at 6:47pm | IP Logged 
blackverve wrote:

Is French one of the official languages in Marrakesh? Why is so widely spoken? So, Morocco has a lot of native Spanish and Italian speakers?    

It's not considered an official language, but is taught in virtually all schools and is a member of the Francophonie.

My experience with Spanish and Italian was that when I couldn't effectively communicate what I wanted to in French, there was someone available that knew Spanish (and to a much lesser degree, Italian). There really wasn't much English around, but then again, I spent most of my time outside the Medina in Marrakesh.

R.
==
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blackverve
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 4533 days ago
40 posts - 46 votes
Studies: German

 
 Message 26 of 36
14 December 2011 at 6:48pm | IP Logged 
Марк wrote:
Wellcome to Russia! Most adults do not speak English. Young people are not very good at
it either. The same is true for all the former Soviet Union.


YES, Russian here I come! Although, it's not on my list. How hard is Russian? Are they anti-English? Is that why it seems like it's the only place English hasn't conquered?
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blackverve
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 4533 days ago
40 posts - 46 votes
Studies: German

 
 Message 27 of 36
14 December 2011 at 6:53pm | IP Logged 
DaraghM wrote:
My primary aim for learning languages is to converse with locals when I'm travelling. As others have mentioned, most of the places you've mentioned are high profile tourist destinations, and the locals will have varying degrees of English. The main places I found English lacking were in South America, mainly Cuba and also Argentina.

If I was to advise learning another language for travelling it would be Spanish, as it's possible to develop a proficiency in a reasonable time frame. China also lacks English speakers, but the language requires a serious degree of commitment to get to a very basic level. As Mapk mentions, Russian is a widely spoken language. While St.Petersburg is English friendly, I've heard Moscow can be challenging for non Russian speakers.


I always wonder how all the people in these countries remember English even though they don't use it daily. I learnt French in school but I wouldn't be able to speak to a French tourist.
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blackverve
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 4533 days ago
40 posts - 46 votes
Studies: German

 
 Message 28 of 36
14 December 2011 at 6:59pm | IP Logged 
Mad Max wrote:
Well, Spanish is useful in South America, The USA, Caribbean, Mexico, Spain, etc. But
it's also useful in Morocco, Portugal and Italy.

Last year I was in Rome and I spoke in Spanish, and Italians spoke in Italian or even a
Spanish-Italian mixture. We could understand each other perfectly. The same in Portugal
and Morocco.



The Portuguese understand Spanish? How? And the Italians too? What a surprise!
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blackverve
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 4533 days ago
40 posts - 46 votes
Studies: German

 
 Message 29 of 36
14 December 2011 at 7:02pm | IP Logged 
hrhenry wrote:
blackverve wrote:

Hee. When I say "Western" I really mean "North American" things: American TV, McDonalds...

Like it or not, "American" things are now western things, franchised out to locals.

If it's any consolation, if have you trouble finding a Starbucks in Italy, there's always Lavazza :-/

R.
==


Lavazza an Italian coffee chain shop?   

Edited by blackverve on 14 December 2011 at 7:08pm
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blackverve
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 4533 days ago
40 posts - 46 votes
Studies: German

 
 Message 30 of 36
14 December 2011 at 7:07pm | IP Logged 
hrhenry wrote:
blackverve wrote:

Is French one of the official languages in Marrakesh? Why is so widely spoken? So, Morocco has a lot of native Spanish and Italian speakers?    

It's not considered an official language, but is taught in virtually all schools and is a member of the Francophonie.

My experience with Spanish and Italian was that when I couldn't effectively communicate what I wanted to in French, there was someone available that knew Spanish (and to a much lesser degree, Italian). There really wasn't much English around, but then again, I spent most of my time outside the Medina in Marrakesh.

R.
==


What's Francophonie? Do they understand standard French or were you able to speak in their French dialect?
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Марк
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 4857 days ago
2096 posts - 2972 votes 
Speaks: Russian*

 
 Message 31 of 36
14 December 2011 at 7:14pm | IP Logged 
blackverve wrote:
Марк wrote:
Wellcome to Russia! Most adults do not speak English.
Young people are not very good at
it either. The same is true for all the former Soviet Union.


YES, Russian here I come! Although, it's not on my list. How hard is Russian? Are they
anti-English? Is that why it seems like it's the only place English hasn't conquered?

We are not anti-English. Russians do study English a lot, but still most of them don't
know it, or they are not good at it.
Russian is not very difficult, but there are a lot of discussions on the forum, you can
read them.
1 person has voted this message useful



Delodephius
Bilingual Tetraglot
Senior Member
Yugoslavia
Joined 5204 days ago
342 posts - 501 votes 
Speaks: Slovak*, Serbo-Croatian*, EnglishC1, Czech
Studies: Russian, Japanese

 
 Message 32 of 36
14 December 2011 at 7:49pm | IP Logged 
blackverve wrote:
I'm always fascinated by how English finds it's way into every crevice
of the universe. Do they know English because of listening to English music and TV or is
it from school?

Music, TV but lately the internet. The pirating industry is blooming in Serbia. I haven't
bough any software for ten or so years. And so we download a lot, and I mean a lot, of
movies and TV shows. And since in Serbia they're all subtitled (you'll find that most
websites that offer subtitles to download are Serbian) people are used to listening to
English. And all the computer OSs are in English so we're used to reading English as
well. Basically, anything that has to do with computer technology is in English, since we
don't bother that much to translate. I've come to a point where I'd chose English manuals
over Serbian or Slovak any day.


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