Being in a country where you don't know the dominant language.

[Os Cangaceiros]

This is my first experience with it (in France), and I don't like it at all.

They say that a lot of people here know English, but I feel uncomfortable just asking people "do you speak english?" Is just relying on english language chauvinism? (In some respects it doesn't matter, I can't ask signs and payphone instructions to change to English for me) But on the other hand, if I try speaking French, I feel like I'll die of embarrasment because I pronounce words like a total American dumbass. And I've heard that French people don't even appreciate you mangling their language...at least in central america they will laugh and humor your attempts to speak Spanish.

But that would only be relevant if I knew any French at all, which I don't. Except "bonjour".

As you can see I'm a very self-conscious person.

[Smyg]

Oh, I hate it. Even Norway I had a hard time to handle, and I understand it (although don't speak it). There's a reason I only go to majority-English speaking countries.

[阿部高和]

I'm lucky in that I spent summers in America so I speak English just fine if a little stilted.

Don't give up--it takes a long time but your brain will eventually get trained to understand every subtlety and nuance that once previously escaped you.

[Manic Impressive]

most important phrase to learn in French (written as if the words were english coz I can't spell french)

Fir May La Boosh

[Leonid Brozhnev]

most important phrase to learn in French (written as if the words were english coz I can't spell french)

Fir May La Boosh

You mean... Fetchez la Vache :D

France, I remember going when I was 13... it was nice, but I refused to speak the language. I remember one of the French teachers (actual teacher from France) asked me how much French I could speak... I told her 'A little' and she shouted at me in English 'You must! You must! You MUST speak French!!!'. Also, I walked away forgetting to pay for a hotdog and I distinctly remember the cashier calling me a 'Stupid little English boy' in French when I went back to pay.

When I was in Bulgaria I didn't find it that bad... I learned to understand cyrillic before I went so I at least could read signs and learned important words/phrases over the weeks I stayed. We also had a Bulgarian friend who was able to translate for us on some days.

More interestingly I had my first experience with driving a left hand drive car on the right side of the road, and consequently, Bourgas traffic police :lol:

[ZeroNowhere]

It's even worse when you're from that country. It's interesting that the first reaction of most Indian college students to hearing that you can't speak much Hindi is almost always to call your mother a *****, however.

So, I suppose, you should be fine going to a country where you don't know the language so long as you know plenty of swear words in it.

[Manic Impressive]

You mean... Fetchez la Vache :D
:lol:
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Je pète dans votre direction générale. Votre mère était un hamster et votre père sentait le sureau!

[Искра]

When I was in France I was talking English (because why should I know French just because of France?!) and every single French guy/women I asked something answered me in French. I fucking wanted to beat a shit of them... what's your problem?! When foreigners in Croatia ask me something in English I answer them in English not in Croatian.

[Le Rouge]

Fir May La Boosh

What?

Fir May La Boosh -> Fermez la bouche <=> Shut up?

It isn't an insult at all in french. When we say, fermez la bouche, it means either you mouth smells bad or your teeth are yellow :D

In french, to say shut up, we say : Ta Gueule!


I don't have a clue how to write that phonetically.


When I was in France I was talking English (because why should I know French just because of France?!) and every single French guy/women I asked something answered me in French. I fucking wanted to beat a shit of them... what's your problem?! When foreigners in Croatia ask me something in English I answer them in English not in Croatian.

Yep, Thats pretty common in France...But if you come to Quebec, we actually try to answer you in english.

[Искра]

UK was best country I was in so far. People were really nice to me... I met one crazy Hungarian in Brighton who was trying to explain me where's Hungary. Spain was also ok, but Spanish people don't know English very well. I also dislike Hungary.... because a lot of people there are really racist when it comes to Southern Slavs...

[Manic Impressive]

What?

Fir May La Boosh -> Fermez la bouche <=> Shut up?

It isn't an insult at all in french. When we say, fermez la bouche, it means either you mouth smells bad or your teeth are yellow :D

fermez la boosh I thought was shut your mouth. (did not expect to see a z on the end there)

It was either tell him to say that or fermez la port. which is the only other phrase i know and is possibly less useful :p

actually reminds me of this
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[Sam_b]

I also dislike Hungary.... because a lot of people there are really racist when it comes to Southern Slavs...

I dislike Southern Slavs because they make dumbfuck generalisations about Hungary, probably based on the Hungarian-Croat division of powers during the time of Austria Hungary, and think that that sort of shit flies as an inoculous comment on Revleft. Sajnos, nem.

Ironically enough I should stop posting here as I have a Hungarian exam tomorrow morning.

[Arlekino]

Few years I went on bike to France with my husband, we lost in Paris seems French people are very polite but how I understand they do not wish to speak in English and trouble we can't speak in French. So it was problem. When we stayed at hotel the owners was actually very cold to us but situation was warm up conversation when they find out I am from former Soviet Union suddenly they spoke in English which before they did not. We went in one coffee bar as we started understand soon French known we are not French that mean higher price. I tried to argue "You charged for us too much" answer sorry no English. Over all I did liked France I thought is better country than England, countryside is more for proletarians not like in England all upper snobs living in countryside.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

I usually enjoy being in a country where I don't fully understand the language. There's a very relaxing quality to it for me.

I'm much more annoyed traveling around a place like the U.S., where I overhear a lot of conversations about things like "who J-lo is dating," "how loud Vietnamese people are," or other garbage. These kinds of convos are definitely going on in other countries, but since I can't understand them it's not so bad.

I also like the experiences of traveling, meeting new people, learning new languages, etc., a lot more than most people and have never been homesick in my life (but have often been sick of home), so I'm probably weird in that respect.

[Искра]

I dislike Southern Slavs because they make dumbfuck generalisations about Hungary, probably based on the Hungarian-Croat division of powers during the time of Austria Hungary, and think that that sort of shit flies as an inoculous comment on Revleft. Sajnos, nem.

Ironically enough I should stop posting here as I have a Hungarian exam tomorrow morning.
Dubfuck generalisation? During the war and after it, we all went to Hungary for shoping. So I have tons of experience with racism there. From silly 90's stuff like that taxi driver didn't want to drive us, because we were from Croatia to phyisical attack few moths ago when bunch of Jobbik members attacked me and my friends because we were from Zagreb etc. There were a lot of simmilar stories and stuff which are reason why I dislike Hungary, especially Budapest.

Just because Hungarian is hipster thing, that doesn't mean that there are a lot of fucked up right wingers there who take their dumb shit on Serbs and Croats. Of course, I have a lot of friends from Hungary and I don't make silly generalisations like: all Hungarians suck... but still, I don't like going there, because of right wing climate. After all I'm from part of Croatia where a lot of Hungarians live and they are mostly really nice and normal people which dislike Hungarian ultra-nationalism....

Anyhow, Baszdmeg.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

most important phrase to learn in French (written as if the words were english coz I can't spell french)

Fir May La Boosh
Dexter's Laboratory FTW?

[Red Commissar]

Dexter's Laboratory FTW?

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As for my own experience with this, there was only really 'one' place I've been too where I genuinely had no clue with the language, and that was Sweden. Thankfully (for me) most of the people I met had knowledge of English and didn't mind speaking it, though most of the people I'd ask for things seemed to have a chip on their shoulder. Then again they were talking to a ( an annoying) visitor...

[thefinalmarch]

My dad always said Hungary was a beautiful country, and some day I'd like to visit my birthplace of Pecs.

Then again, I know very little of the language (when I was six years old, I was as fluent as I could possibly be in the language, then my knowledge of the language rapidly deteriorated) -- and reading Kontraazvedka's experiences in Hungary, I'm not quite sure it would be the most enjoyable experience. If what you said about Hungarians in neighbouring countries not being ultra-nationalistic is true, then perhaps it would be a more rewarding experience to travel to Serbia someday, as I have family and other distant relations scattered throughout Vojvodina.

[Il Medico]

I'm pretty sure old Sammy just got thoroughly owned. :lol:

[Manic Impressive]

Dexter's Laboratory FTW?
nope sorry I think that might be after my time. I had a friend who spoke french fluently and we used to get proper fucked up together he had this habit of switching to french during a conversation (just to show off) so when he did that I'd just use that phrase and it just kind of stuck.

On the Hungarian thing I used to work with a Hungarian Titoist. We were discussing Romania joining the EU he said "if Romania join the EU I'm leaving because they will fuck up this country within a year just like they have done to mine"

Then I saw on fb the other day this polish guy I know (who is in the UK) posting shit about asylum seekers. Anti-immigrant immigrants oh the irony.

[black magick hustla]

not that big of a deal. i never felt at home anywhere so what would a bunch of ppl speaking some moonlanguage do to me

[Smyg]

As for my own experience with this, there was only really 'one' place I've been too where I genuinely had no clue with the language, and that was Sweden.


:lol:

[Os Cangaceiros]

not that big of a deal. i never felt at home anywhere so what would a bunch of ppl speaking some moonlanguage do to me

I don't know, it's not really about me feeling at home here or not, I never felt homesick when I was in other parts of the USA, or the UK, or Mexico, it's more that I don't like not being able to communicate with people. (Kind of relates to what NHIA said too.)

[Rooster]

Italy was the worst country for me for that. I was just trying to learn the language just to get by so I'd go into a store and then ask for something, in a really poor accent reading from a phrasebook or something, and then they'd just go on and on in really fast Italian thinking that I could speak it. Must be because it's a fairly multi-cultural place. One time, my wife and I were sitting in a bar having some beers, talking in English, and this guy sitting next to us starts talking in English real loud, to the barman who was an Austrian: "Hello! I would like a beer please! The weather is good! Let us speak English!". He was trying to get our attention. Also met this one teenager and his English wasn't that great but it was much better than my Italian, but he kept trying to transliterate jokes from Italian to English; "how many pieces of a fork do you have in Scotland?" or "how do you clean your asshole?!" which wasn't a joke, he was just confused as to how we cleaned our assholes in countries where you don't get bidets. My reply was "oh, we use the three sea shells."

[Sam_b]

Dubfuck generalisation?

Yeah, saying that 10million people are racist pretty much is, right?


So I have tons of experience with racism there. From silly 90's stuff like that taxi driver didn't want to drive us, because we were from Croatia to phyisical attack few moths ago when bunch of Jobbik members attacked me and my friends because we were from Zagreb etc. There were a lot of simmilar stories and stuff which are reason why I dislike Hungary, especially Budapest.


I've been chased by the Jobbik before, does that make ten million people hate peely-wally Scottish kids?


Just because Hungarian is hipster thing

I have no idea what you're on about. Yeah, I blatantly learn Hungarian for the cool rights, nothing to do with my research area being Central Europe or anything.

[Le Rouge]

fermez la boosh I thought was shut your mouth. (did not expect to see a z on the end there)

It was either tell him to say that or fermez la port. which is the only other phrase i know and is possibly less useful :p



Ah yeah, Fermez la bouche means close your mouth...

[Pirate Utopian]

It's annoying. I have no trouble asking people if they speak English. Same way I'd understand that most foreigners dont speak Dutch.

[bricolage]

Yeah, saying that 10million people are racist pretty much is, right?
Well that's not actually what he said;

I also dislike Hungary.... because a lot of people there are really racist when it comes to Southern Slavs...
A lot isn't all and Hungary isn't Hungarians.

[piet11111]

I have never met a foreigner that refused to speak english ......... except the french.... when they where in holland..... trying to get directions from me..... when i was 12.

Seriously they managed to more or less gesture they where looking for the swimming pool and i tried to explain in my terrible english where to go when the woman started to get upset at her boyfriend/husband and then he switched to almost perfect english.
The fuck you i gave was clear to both but i felt bad for the woman as she did try to talk english to me.


The only french i do speak is Je Ne Parle Pas Français

[Triple A]

Ah, oui les français ne aiment pas les anglais mais je pense qu' ils compreend le anglais comme si comme ça.

http://universonerd.com.br/nerdreview/files/2010/04/Ba-dum-tss.jpg

[brigadista]

my attempts to speak french one time in paris led to the person asking me to please speak english- must have been really bad...

[RedAnarchist]

I've never been out of the UK so as a native Anglophone I've not had the experience of living in or visiting a country where English is not the main language. However, I would like to, especially if I was learning a language that was dominant in that country. I suspect that my not so great verbal communication skills would hamper any efforts on my part, though.

[Vanguard1917]

I've never been out of the UK so as a native Anglophone I've not had the experience of living in or visiting a country where English is not the main language.

You clearly have not had the misfortune of visiting some of our inner-cities.

Oops, wrong forum.

[The Young Pioneer]

I have never met a foreigner that refused to speak english ......... except the french....

Russians are prone to do it, too. My friend walked up to a souvenier booth, asked directions in English, and the woman began flailing her arms and hollering in Russian that she doesn't speak English, go away!!!

I waited a sec, approached, asked the same in Russian, and got a cordial answer.

:lol: I love Russians.



And for that matter, Hungarians and Croatians, too. :thumbup1:

[Os Cangaceiros]

I'm in the Netherlands now, and it seems like everyone speaks english here. They're not dicks about it, either, unlike the Parisians.

[Pirate Utopian]

Yeah we're fucking awesome.

[Raúl Duke]

I've been to Japan and Italy...
In Japan, I've learned a bunch of useful phrases and many Japanese people speak/understand some degree of English; particularly in Tokyo.
Not sure if we were every insulted, it didn't seem that way. The Japanese tend to be too polite in public.

In Italy, there's not much to say since I have some level of fluency of the Italian language plus it is similar to Spanish so I "understood" more Italian than I actually knew...I tended to understand more than speak.
It seemed that Southern Europeans tended to not know much English compared to the Northern Europeans (and also to the Japanese), since the Northern Europeans (particularly from Scandinavian countries like Denmark, also Germans) I saw in Florence who spoke good English.
Italians didn't fuck much with me though because I usually talked to them in Italian most of the time, making an effort to talk in the Italian language. In fact, I got special favors, etc for this compared to my other study-abroad peers.
In Italy however, I did see some French tourists. I'm going to hold making opinions on the French people in general, but my opinion of French tourists (particularly older French tourists) is that they're rude and obnoxious. On the streets of Florence, many people assumed I was Italian (I had a Spanish couple come up to me and ask for directions in Italian, I answered back in Spanish, they kept talking to me in Italian...lol) yet the French tourists I encountered asked me something in French. In other words, I guess one could say they're as rude as some American older tourists in assuming that people speak their language except I can kinda understand the assumption of people knowing English but the French should know better since French is not as widespread as English. I tried to understand this fat French 40 year old tourist woman...and by the time I realized what they said to me in French (a miracle, I don't know French really) and was about to come up with some form of answer (maybe even in French! A feat since my knowledge of French is very tiny) they just made this rude dismissive gesture and walked away.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

The Dutch rock! Anyway I have heard that the Netherlands is by now essentially an English speaking country, govt documents are in English, Hollywood movies are shown in English w/out subtitles and much TV is in English. I'm not sure if this is good or bad but it does make things much easier for Anglophones.

I am very far from an expert. I've been to Budapest briefly. I have heard from many people that Hungary is a very culturally conservative country. I've stories about guys with dreads being harassed.

I've hitchhiked in eastern France (with other people). Not a good country for this, picking up riders isn't part of the culture (Germany is different). I haven't been to a big city in France. In villages and towns people were super friendly and apologetic that their English wasn't good, which made me feel a bit awkward because my French was worse.

[Comrade J]

I'm from England and I've lived in France for four months, and whilst I pretty much can speak French, occasionally someone will respond in English - I think for the opportunity to practice what they know. However, that's a rarity, and in the part of France I live in, there aren't many English visitors, just the odd few moronic expats who don't learn a word of French.

I can't blame the people here for getting pissed off when some English-speaker gestures and shouts loudly in English at them like they're an idiot for not speaking it. Is it really so hard to download a language course (I hiiiighly recommend Michel Thomas ones) or go on a few websites and learn some basic structure and verbs? Everyone I've met here has been friendly, good-humoured etc. I also did some hitchhiking and found it really easy and met some great characters along the way.

Incidentally, tomorrow is my last day in France before I go to Germany. A week ago, I spoke very little German, but I've been studying it intensely, learning verbs, common nouns etc. and I think now I've got a decent enough understanding to be polite, ask for stuff, directions, tickets and so on, which will keep me going as I learn more when I'm there. My worst nightmare is having to say to somebody "do you speak English?" - just make a fucking effort. :rolleyes:

[mykittyhasaboner]

I usually enjoy being in a country where I don't fully understand the language. There's a very relaxing quality to it for me.

I'm much more annoyed traveling around a place like the U.S., where I overhear a lot of conversations about things like "who J-lo is dating," "how loud Vietnamese people are," or other garbage. These kinds of convos are definitely going on in other countries, but since I can't understand them it's not so bad.

I also like the experiences of traveling, meeting new people, learning new languages, etc., a lot more than most people and have never been homesick in my life (but have often been sick of home), so I'm probably weird in that respect.

This.



i don't see the big deal about not knowing French while visiting France for example. Going to places where a different language is spoken is the only real way to learn a new language, since it's written everywhere and everyone speaks it.

Your going to be naive and soft spoken at first, but with a little effort, you'll learn how to greet people and ask for things, etc. It's worth the self-consciousness and potential embarrassment.