Do people there speak English?

I think to learn a language, to speak it fluently will require to reside where it is spoken. I do think one can learn quite a bit from programs and online, but to really know it, one needs to live among native speakers of the language one is trying to learn . I think this holds true for most people, but certainly not all.

I saw a man online who spoke fluently like 13 or 14 languages! He is truly gifted. He just has the gift. He was Italian and he spoke according to himself, fluent German,English,,Chinese,etc, and I don't remember what else, but a very high number. Simply amazing.

I know his English, German and Italian were fluent. I understand German moderately and he could really go with the native speakers . Italian he spoke with someone who was from Italy and I heard him speak English. I will take his word for the rest of the languages he spoke.
 
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Language has never been an impediment to us for visiting foreign countries. We have always been able to muddle through. People are the same everywhere.

We think that if you are greatly limiting your travels (and your travel experiences) to countries where they speak English or speak the languages that you speak.
 
I haven't been to that many foreign countries (maybe 12 to 15 between Europe and Asia, I lost count) but the only place I ever had trouble being understood or understanding was in Japan. Even with my Texan version of English I was able to get by almost everywhere (the UK was interesting).

I'm often amazed at the variety of English dialects just here in the US. Of course I can understand Texan English just fine. Southern Louisiana (Cajun county) is pretty easy too. Midwestern'ers are easy to understand and most folks from the west coast don't seem to have any detectable dialect (to my ear), however, some folks from the Northeast really sound "strange" to me. I'm sure they must think the same about me too.
 
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I've often wondered how the southern accent came about. How about those from New England? I have no idea. Why don't people on the west coast seem to have an accent? Or do they? If they do I can't tell. Interesting stuff.

People who don't speak fluent English can't seem to hear the different accents for American English. I mean the difference from say someone from Massachusetts versus someone from Alabama.

When I was working occasionally there would be someone from either England or Australia drop by. I could never tell the difference. I would always get the two countries accents mixed up.
 
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kcowan said:
Yes my Dad's family immigrated from Glasgow. I learned their language when I was under 5. I never mastered speaking it though. In my twenties, I was speaking to a Space Needle guard and discovered he was from Glasgow when he detected my accent. I asked him to talk to me in Glaswegian and I still understood it.
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I may have posted this before, but on Salt Spring Island I encountered an 'elderly' hobby farmer with a distinct Scottish accent......asked him how long since he left.....he said that he'd never been outside Canada.....grown up in a remote Alberta farming community populated by Scots.
 
Stopped in for a shawarma at a one employee outlet in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria.......got talking with the guy, maybe in his thirties, who had great English......said he learned from television.

He also mentioned the peculiarities of Korean grammar....he'd apparently learned Korean from TV also.
 
Our friend's Mexican wife watches English TV with Spanish subtitles even after they have been married for 20 years. It is amazing how that makes a difference. When we watch it, we find that English is far richer in slang than the Spanish translators.
 
Amethyst said:
In Paris many people spoke English, but only after I'd tried to speak French to them.
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I had a similar experience years ago in Germany.

When we first got there, we'd walk into a shop and the folks professed not to know any English. But, after some coaching from another American, I learned some basic phrases ("Good morning", "Can you please help me?", "Do you speak English?", etc.)

The transformation was remarkable. A little effort went a long way with a lot of the locals.
 
It seemed to us that just about everyone we stopped and asked for directions while in Thailand had two things in common.

They spoke English. And they all seemed to have a relative in Canada....did we know them?
 
braumeister said:
Many North Americans are reluctant to try foreign travel because they are apprehensive about their ability to communicate.... Here is an interesting list of places where they do an outstanding job of speaking English.
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Many "North Americans" speak only Spanish or French. Just saying.
 
HadEnuff said:
. I mentioned this phenomenon to my two uncles who are native Italians, but have lived in the USA their entire adult lives. They told me the same thing happens to them. Apparently, even though Italian is their native tongue, decades in the States have influenced their accents to the point that they are recognized in Italy as "foreign".

Interesting.
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Very common in the Vietnamese speaking world. My wife is a war refugee from '75 and she can pick out where a Vietnamese speaker is from almost instantly by dialect, and the same goes for returning to Vietnam. After 40+ years the slang and tones have drifted and you are immediately ID'd as an American Vietnamese (as if the clothing styles and tan lines don't give you away before you even open your mouth.)
 
We cannot imagine limiting your travel to countries where you perceive that communication in English will be a problem.

We do not even consider this. We just go. So far, so good. Never had a real issue. Somehow it all works out in the end. People are very much the same everywhere. Signals, sign language, gestures can be used in a pinch.

What we really notice is that the cruise lines really do take advantage of this fear in Europe. They price their excursions and local shuttles accordingly. We have been shocked at some of the prices we have seen for cruise line hotels etc.
 
I may have said it before, but these little"Just Enough" phrase books that fit in a pocket are invaluable. I have a big set of them because I had customers all over the world.
I used one to get cold medicine for DW in Russia, even though the man behind me was smiling about my pronunciation.
 
brett said:
What we really notice is that the cruise lines really do take advantage of this fear in Europe. They price their excursions and local shuttles accordingly. We have been shocked at some of the prices we have seen for cruise line hotels etc.
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If you post/lurk on such sites as Cruise Critic you'll notice that a large (huge?) percentage of those people who self identify as 'Cruisers' fly into the departure port, catch the ship, pay through the nose for excursions, disembark and go home.

And consider themselves 'travelers'. :cool:
 
Nemo2 said:
If you post/lurk on such sites as Cruise Critic you'll notice that a large (huge?) percentage of those people who self identify as 'Cruisers' fly into the departure port, catch the ship, pay through the nose for excursions, disembark and go home.

And consider themselves 'travelers'. :cool:
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However, on that same board there are large numbers of cruisers who put together their own small group excursions by sharing costs with other cruisers. We did a Lima Culinary tour, a tour of Portugal out to Sintra and Cascais, a flight over the Nazca lines, and a tour of Giverney and Rouen among others.
Tt was absolutely wonderful to have a small group.
If you do the math, if it takes an average of 30 seconds per person to get on and off a bus, that kills 40 minutes per stop! And that does not count the stragglers:(
 
Souschef said:
Tt was absolutely wonderful to have a small group.
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Which is why DW & I explore on our own. ;) (Although she does insist on holding up one of those lollipop signs and blowing a whistle if I don't keep up.)
 
rocketjockey said:
...After 40+ years the slang and tones have drifted and you are immediately ID'd as an American Vietnamese.....
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My dad was 2nd generation American and spoke Czech fluently, he travelled to the Czech Republic frequently before he passed away.

He shared the Czechs loved to hear him speak because he spoke an 1880s version of Czech- that's what he learned from his parents and the language evolved- but his American version didn't.
 
lwp2017 said:
He shared the Czechs loved to hear him speak because he spoke an 1880s version of Czech- that's what he learned from his parents and the language evolved- but his American version didn't.
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I think that applies to many languages -- separation from the original means you don't change while the original does.

There are some isolated places in Appalachia where you can hear Elizabethan English being spoken. And I think modern Icelandic is supposed to be similar to medieval Norse.
 
braumeister said:
And I think modern Icelandic is supposed to be similar to medieval Norse.
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I've heard that, too- that Icelanders can read Beowulf in the original language (Old English or Old Norse?). I find Old English easier to get through than Icelandic, though.

Similar observation: I'm in a French discussion group led by a woman from Montreal and she said that the French in Continental Europe find French Canadians hard to understand because the Canadian French dialect is so close to how the language sounded at the time Canada was being settled by Europeans. She's proud of having worked to lose her Canadian accent.
 
Milton said:
Many "North Americans" speak only Spanish or French. Just saying.
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DW is fluent in Spanish and the only place she had difficulty was France. Fortunately I speak French.

Of course now she wants to learn street Spanish. Then she can understand when people talk to each other!

When I worked in France, my friend from Montreal would send waitresses into fits of laughter in French with his Quebecois. He was shocked to see that they did not use stationnement for parking and Arret for Stop signs! I would have to translate some of his expressions.
 
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Souschef said:
However, on that same board there are large numbers of cruisers who put together their own small group excursions by sharing costs with other cruisers. We did a Lima Culinary tour, a tour of Portugal out to Sintra and Cascais, a flight over the Nazca lines, and a tour of Giverney and Rouen among others.
Tt was absolutely wonderful to have a small group.
If you do the math, if it takes an average of 30 seconds per person to get on and off a bus, that kills 40 minutes per stop! And that does not count the stragglers:(
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Yes that is how we use it. By consulting prior sailings, you can find out which are the best independent companies. And make connections with other like-minded travelers. We would complete the equivalent of 2 or 3 shore excursions by sharing driver and avoiding that on and off the bus delay plus their inevitable shopping stops!
 
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