Languages you aren't expected to know...

GuestUser   Tue Feb 23, 2010 12:24 pm GMT
I'm British, and can speak Spanish and Italian resonably well and on the occasions I've been in Spain and Italy I've never had anyone bat an eye-lid at the fact I can speak them, if anything I've always got the impression that Spanish and Italians expect you to be able to speak their language and anyone who can't is simply an annoyance.

However, which countries with major languages are genuinely suprised by the fact that a foreigner can speak it? I wan to start with another language, but one that makes you a bit more unique. In my experience quite simply no one gives a shit if you can speak Spanish or Italian, they're so common.

I've found Dutch are very suprised by foreigners who can speak Dutch, but more often than not its a very negative, "don't speak Dutch ever again", type suprise.
fraz   Tue Feb 23, 2010 3:15 pm GMT
I have a colleague who is fluent in Norwegian and has told me people in Norway are very surprised when he speaks their language.

In fact, he often holds back before launching into Norwegian because it can be surprising what people will say within earshot when they assume you cannot understand them.
ey   Tue Feb 23, 2010 5:26 pm GMT
French of course is one of those languages you're supposed to know. I used it in Switzerland to ask for directions several times. Sometimes they responded in English or sometimes in French, but they gave me some weird looks while doing it. I didn't think my French was that bad, but who knows.
K.   Tue Feb 23, 2010 7:46 pm GMT
I have heard people talk about me or others. In fact, I heard a theft being planned in another language. I look so ordinary I guess people don't suspect me of knowing anything, lol.
J   Tue Feb 23, 2010 8:18 pm GMT
@ey

The problem with the French language is that its native speakers are extremely picky about the way their language is spoken by foreigners... So if they know English, they just might switch to English as soon as they hear someone speak to them with an accent, rather than having to listen to their horribly not-perfect French.
Baldewin   Tue Feb 23, 2010 8:34 pm GMT
I take pleasure in butchering French. Personally I like to exaggerate my accent and mix some flavour of petit nègre in it along with an overabundance of anglicisms.

Mo, j'aimer massacrer la language française en usant des mots anglais innécessaires.

Always start your sentences with <<moi je>> and always forget to use the subjunctive, go and watch their reactions. A lollercauster is guaranteed with these frog-eaters.
Baldewin   Tue Feb 23, 2010 8:40 pm GMT
Languages you aren't expected to know often are 'small languages'. Scandinavian language might be along with it, I don't know. I do know Finnish can be very shy in using their native language and directly switch to English. It think it takes time for its speakers getting used to mere tourists trying their own language, subconsciously they don't mean anything bad. Immigrants are allowed to retain their accent in Dutch though, so it's also a fluency thing.
Franco   Tue Feb 23, 2010 8:48 pm GMT
<<Languages you aren't expected to know often are 'small languages'.>>

In Catalonia you are expected to speak Catalan yet it is a minuscule language.
fdf   Tue Feb 23, 2010 8:59 pm GMT
I don't understand this stupid attitude towards French learners. How the heck are we supposed to learn if the people are so reluctant to be patient and friendly. Selfish behavior. Idiots actually, I hope their language declines, it serves them right for being so insular.
df   Tue Feb 23, 2010 9:01 pm GMT
Do the majority of French really think that their English accent is soo superior to our poor French accents? Most french have a bad accent in english and can't pronounce several sounds properly. We don't turn our nose up at them, the pompous prigs.
hey   Tue Feb 23, 2010 9:08 pm GMT
i went to barcelona and got by just fine with mostly english a little spanish. at the time i didn't even know catalan was a different language, but thought it was just some weird dialect of spanish that had a lot of x's in it for some reason

oh and why are the populations so small for scandinavian countries given their overall impact on world history and recognizability? didn't realize till lately that they only have like about 5 million each (sweden with 9), and pretty much everyone has heard of norway, sweden, and finland. they have a lot of land, except for denmark, although most of it is probably too cold and barren. even some obscure eastern european countries that many americans haven't heard of have more speakers/populations
PARISIEN   Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:18 pm GMT
<< Always start your sentences with <<moi je>> and always forget to use the subjunctive, go and watch their reactions. >>

-- No specific reaction is to expected since colloquial French isn't spoken otherwise most of the time.


<< The problem with the French language is that its native speakers are extremely picky about the way their language is spoken by foreigners... So if they know English, they just might switch to English as soon as they hear someone speak to them with an accent, rather than having to listen to their horribly not-perfect French. >>

-- Urban legends about France ordinarily claim that the French refuse to speak English even if they can, hey, make up your minds!
.   Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:38 pm GMT
France is an effeminate failed state.


ENGLAND IS AN ALPHA MALE NATION!





Yours,
An impartial observer.
anon   Wed Feb 24, 2010 12:08 am GMT
<<Most french have a bad accent in english and can't pronounce several sounds properly.>>

No. Most of the french can't speak a word of english.
hispanophage   Wed Feb 24, 2010 12:17 am GMT
"ENGLAND IS AN ALPHA MALE NATION"

LOL
This has to be the funniest comment ever!
If the English are seen worldwide as an epitome of faggotry there must be some reason.
Because of their high pitched voices?
Or because of their well known paederastic tendencies perhaps?