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Most surprised reaction from natives? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4422 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 33 of 91 20 May 2012 at 10:40pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I must say, I've rarely come across this in Germany. Practically every person I address in German responds in German. I've always seen this "everyone replies in English" argument as something of a learning avoidance strategy. If you approach a German person in their own country, address them in their own language and what you say is comprehensible, why would they answer in English? 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5134 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 34 of 91 21 May 2012 at 8:38am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I can't answer for Germany, but In Norway they switch to English when they hear a hint of an accent. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6503 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 35 of 91 21 May 2012 at 10:09am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I have just returned from Portugal, and I noticed that people who deal professionally with tourists as a routine speak to anybody who might be a foreigner in English or German (depending on the distribution of tourist nationalities - Faro: English, Lagos: English or German). And this happens even before you have said a word except maybe "bom dia" or "Boa tarde". In some cases they stick to that 'first impression language' even though you speak their language - but then suddenly you can see some of them having a moment of utter confusion and then they switch to the local language. If this didn't happen you might be tempted to doubt your own skills, but if they just had decided to go along with the joke then you would expect them to speak extra slowly and clearly and with simple words (as they do to children). - and I didn't experience this. Some continued to speak English, but obviously they understood what I said - and then we had one of those funny bilingual conversation where both parts speak a foreign language. I didn't feel this as a power struggle, but more like 'we always speak English (or German) to foreigners here' plus maybe a desire to show that they do speak foreignese.
I have already mentioned the most surprised reaction during my trip above, but the next most surprised person must be a museum guard who began to tell me about an object in good, but not quite fluent English. I then said that he could use Portuguese, and the man visibly breathed a sigh of relief and continued in the fastest Portuguese I have ever heard. Edited by Iversen on 21 May 2012 at 12:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4422 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 36 of 91 21 May 2012 at 10:58am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I guess in Germany people might switch to English if you make an enquiry in broken German. Having said that, there are a lot of people in Germany who are not very confident with English and would prefer to continue in their own language. But if you speak a good standard of German and get the pronunciation and grammar right, most people have no reason to switch. Which brings me to your point. Do you mean that Norwegian people start speaking English even if a foreigner (with a bit of an accent) approaches them with gramatically-sound Norwegian spoken at a normal pace? Why does this happen? I shouldn't imagine that Norwegians are that desperate to "practise" their English. Also, the other person could feel completely snubbed by this attitude. But I guess you are just not used to hearing foreign people speak your language. Actually, I watched a documentary yesterday about the tragic events of last year in Norway. A large number of people were interviewed, young and old, and I couldn't help being impressed by the standard of English spoken. I mean, I know Scandanavians have a reputation for being good English speakers but this was near enough flawless. The correct tense was always used, there was barely (if any) a preposition out of place and a healthy amount of idiom was thrown into the mix. You wouldn't have heard such prefect usage of English in, say, France or Germany from such a wide range of people. Granted, most of the people interviewed were probably highly educated but even so, the level on display was astounding, way beyond functional business use or everyday conversational ability. So how do you become so fluent? It can't all be from listening to pop music and movies in English. Edited by beano on 21 May 2012 at 11:00am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| maydayayday Pentaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5019 days ago 564 posts - 839 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese Studies: Urdu | Message 37 of 91 21 May 2012 at 11:23am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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2nd post in this thread - apologies
We had a short break in Egypt earlier in the year and decided to take the day trip to Jerusalem. Crossing into Israel, I was asked by the border guard (for the first time ever) which languages I speak. I told him in Hebrew that I speak two or three and understand others. It took me 15 minutes to explain enough for him to let me pass. I have never actively studied Hebrew in any detail, but I have looked at it in passing. Edited by maydayayday on 21 May 2012 at 11:38am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5134 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 38 of 91 21 May 2012 at 12:15pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
People would have to speak Norwegian at a very high level for Norwegians not to switch into English. I guess it is linked to the fact that everyone's English here is so good. You choose the language in which you assume that conversation will flow most easily. I think it also comes from a misguided sense of being helpful and polite. And actually yes, it does come largely from listening to pop music and films, but we do also start to learn it at age 6 (or before) and we have an extremely high quality in our English teaching. The combination produces fantastic results. My daughters were both fluent in English at the age of 10-12 (and when I say fluent I mean better than me, who majored in English at the university). I had a peculiar experience at my last visit in France by the way. In three separate incidents during the same visit the exact same scene was repeated: 1) I speak French to a Frenchman. 2) They answer in French 3) At some point they see my name, either on my passport or my credit card and they immediately swith to English. 4) I ask them (in French) why the have switched to English 5) They appologize (in French) and say they are overworked/tired/had a tough day. I draw the conclusion that as long as they just hear the spoken French they are happy to speak French, but when they realize I am a foreigner they want to be polite and speak English. (Mind you, episodes like these have only happened to me in Paris in very touristy areas, and only the last few years.) Outside of Paris I always get my answer back in French. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6503 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 39 of 91 21 May 2012 at 1:00pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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One more case, which I just remembered. I visited a museum in Dürres in Albania, and I had spoken to the lady in the ticket sale (I don't remember in which language - English, German or French). She said that Albanian was impossible to learn for foreigners, and I said it couldn't be that bad. And to prove my point I took her to an information text in Albanian and began to translate it. She was genuinely surprised, but actually the task wasn't too difficult. I could see that there was ceramics in the showcase behind the text (with small information labels), and the text itself was full of place and tribe/nation names and other comprehensible information, so it was fairly easy to guess what the content was. Besides I had looked at it before while walking through the museum so I knew that this particular text wasn't too hard to crack. But I couldn't resist the temptation to demonstrate that even Albanian isn't beyond reach.
Edited by Iversen on 21 May 2012 at 1:03pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| COF Senior Member United States Joined 5631 days ago 262 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English* | Message 40 of 91 21 May 2012 at 1:14pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Perhaps not in Germany, but it is a problem with certain languages and native speakers. Some countries do indeed reply in English, the Dutch being a prime example. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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