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Openess to language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Fredwc1 Newbie United States Joined 3536 days ago 12 posts - 13 votes Studies: French, German, Spanish | Message 1 of 27 19 April 2015 at 5:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am a native English (American) speaker. If I come to your country and attempt to speak
the language, how open would the natives be to speaking to me in their native language....or would they just start speaking English once they found out I speak English? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4489 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 2 of 27 19 April 2015 at 5:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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Тhey are usually open to it, except maybe in overly touristed spots. I've never had
trouble with getting people to speak the local language to me wherever I was. That includes Icelandic and Mandarin. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4791 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 3 of 27 19 April 2015 at 5:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Depends on many things, such as:
1) the country and region. Paris is among the worst, most places in Spain appear to be among the best and so on. 2) the situation. Many people and friends may be glad to help you. Someone trying to do their job fast will always choose the easiest communication path, which leads to the next point: 3) your level. You don't need to be perfect, it just needs to be clear you won't be more trouble than the native is willing to accept. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5764 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 4 of 27 19 April 2015 at 6:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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In typical tourist situations, like checking into a hotel or buying dinner, things tend to follow a really standard script and in these situations I find it can be 50/50 whether service staff switch. But to be honest, the whole exchange is so formulaic in any language, I don't care any more whether we do it in English or the local language. And I have actually seen some tourists react really badly when service staff don't (or can't) switch to English and I guess this doesn't have to happen often in your career to change the way you deal with foreign tourists.
Things get more interesting when you move off script. So when the hotel I'd booked in Paris couldn't accept guests due to a major electrical fault, the whole exchange happened in French, even though at the time my French skills were a lot more basic than they are even now. It was good for my ego and in the end we got booked into a better hotel. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| nikolic993 Diglot Senior Member Yugoslavia Joined 3562 days ago 106 posts - 205 votes Speaks: Serbian*, English Studies: Italian, Mandarin, Romanian, Persian | Message 5 of 27 19 April 2015 at 6:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here in Serbia, most of the younger people would probably want to practice their English, but if you tell them that you want to practice your Serbian, they would be more than happy to speak with you. Edited by nikolic993 on 19 April 2015 at 6:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 3881 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 6 of 27 19 April 2015 at 7:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Natives speaking of their own country, i.e. those being asked in your original post, are probably going to have a very different experience from anglophone tourists. Partly because they have more experience with the country in general, and partly because they probably have no experience at all trying to speak the local language with an anglophone accent.
All I can tell you for Sweden (Malmö/Lund area) is that I've had some very confused or stunned looks when I've entered a business with friends from school (my school was anglophone) and then started speaking Swedish with workers, but no one ever tried to speak English to me. BUT, I have a very local accent and clearly speak the language natively. I've never been in a situation where a native or C2 anglophone wanting to practise their Swedish, no matter how heavy their accent, has been responded to in English. It has often been the other way around... people who take Swedish classes insist on speaking English so that everyone in the room has to switch languages (experience: anglophone schooling, working in an anglophone school, 25 years of running into foreigners, numerous "expat" acquaintances, all in non-touristy daily life situations). Tourists tell a completely different story, though. Edited by eyðimörk on 19 April 2015 at 7:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4303 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 7 of 27 19 April 2015 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you come to a rural non-touristy area in Austria and are speaking with people over 40
and only lower secondary education (ie. the majority), you might experience the following: a) they respond in full blown dialect, no matter your proficiency b) if a) turns out to be futile, they slow down and speak more loudly c) if b) turns out to be futile they get annoyed and start speaking in foreigner-speech like "Du nix verstehen? Gehen rechts, dann gerade aus, dort Ziel!" 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5018 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 8 of 27 19 April 2015 at 8:47pm | IP Logged | ||
They would be very open to it, although your strange accent might cause some difficulties. However once you learn to speak properly and learn to spell, you'll be fine! Of course they will switch to speaking English to you. The Queens English. :) 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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