Should everyone speak English?

A1Sailor said:
I heard a story about a big sign which was put up somewhere in Wales, with some most unusual content. What happened was somebody sent the intended content to a linguist requesting an English-Welsh translation. The e-mailed response that came back was pretty instantaneous, and the sign was quickly produced and erected.
It said something along the lines of, in Welsh:

"I am on annual leave and will attend to your e-mail on my return"!

Anybody else heard this? It can't be true; can it?

Edit:
I've found it!
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It was in Swansea, and the Welsh reads:
"I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated."
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Nice one.

For a short while I lived above (as in, at 1200 ft) a village called Rhosgadfan (not far from Caernarfon). Each time I drove into Caernarfon I'd see the sign that someone had painted on a roadside wall in large white letters: Nid yw Cymru ar Werth (Wales is not for sale).

Then one day I noticed that some wag had recently added a postscript - in equally large white letters: "Oh yes it is".
 
Before we set off for a couple of years cruising round Brittany we put some effort into brushing up our school French. However, we would invariably find that we would start any communication with locals in French and they would immediately come back to us in English. Maybe it was because we were in a touristy area but everyone wanted to practice their English.
I can only recollect one case where we had difficulty communicating and that was where I was trying to persuade a boatyard patron to lift me up on his crane so I could feed my main halyard back down the mast. In the end I had to draw a picture that has now been framed by SWMBO and hung in the cludgie!
 
Twister_Ken said:
Agreed, but that doesn't help if you want to ask what time the launderette opens.
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True, but the OP said

Nostrodamus said:
Look,I am in France and I am the biggest culprit in the world. I hear the French weather forecast on the radio and I don't understand it.I hear what I presume is the coast guard but I have no idea what they are balbbering on about. I hear other boats but have no idea what they are saying. If I use my radio I speak in English and hope they can do so too.
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which I assumed was referring to short range VHF comms, not marina office banter.
 
chrisclin said:
Before we set off for a couple of years cruising round Brittany we put some effort into brushing up our school French. However, we would invariably find that we would start any communication with locals in French and they would immediately come back to us in English. Maybe it was because we were in a touristy area but everyone wanted to practice their English.
I can only recollect one case where we had difficulty communicating and that was where I was trying to persuade a boatyard patron to lift me up on his crane so I could feed my main halyard back down the mast. In the end I had to draw a picture that has now been framed by SWMBO and hung in the cludgie!
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Ah but you started in French. If you start in English they are less enthusiastic about practicing their English. Of course that attitude is better than ours when they come to Blighty :D
 
The first time I had to buy an essential item for Evadne in France was a hosepipe in Cherbourg, as the tanks were empty and I couldn't make any tea, and the only way to obtain water was via a hosepipe which I didn't have. On entering the hardware shop I realised that my famed ability to ask for a beer in any one of seven languages was of no help with any part of that question or its explanation. But when you want to buy something, and the proprietor wants to sell it to you, somehow you communicate. Even the French have a sense of humour. Saying "Bonjour madame" as an opener was definitely the right thing to do, though.

To the OP, learning "duex bieres et un plat de mer si vous plait" and "merci" will get you along way. :D
 
Evadne said:
The first time I had to buy an essential item for Evadne in France was a hosepipe in Cherbourg, as the tanks were empty and I couldn't make any tea, and the only way to obtain water was via a hosepipe which I didn't have. On entering the hardware shop I realised that my famed ability to ask for a beer in any one of seven languages was of no help with any part of that question or its explanation. But when you want to buy something, and the proprietor wants to sell it to you, somehow you communicate. Even the French have a sense of humour. Saying "Bonjour madame" as an opener was definitely the right thing to do, though.

To the OP, learning "duex bieres et un plat de mer si vous plait" and "merci" will get you along way. :D
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Just be careful not to add a letter d to the sea.
 
Nostrodamus said:
Am I arrogant or
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Iggerant? :)

We have a poor education system in the UK and as a result few of us speak a foreign language fluently. A large number dont speak a foreign language at all. And many young people struggle with English.

That said, you cant learn every language there is and English is the nearest thing the world has to a lingua franca. But people have a romantic attachment to their native tongue plus there are some stupid people who even go so far as to revive virtually dead languages ( Cornish, Irish, etc) to make things even more awkward for their citizens.
 
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galadriel said:
After a good many years living in France, my SIL who is married to a Frenchman, still gets frustrated with the language. Her French is superb, but she reports that there are occasions in conversation where people make out they dont understand what she is saying, maybe just because of a slight pronunciation issue. She claims that even talking with friends the French can be exceedingly awkward.
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I have often wondered this about the French. In English, if someone with a poor grasp of the language (even a Frenchman) stops me on my way to the bar and asks me something - and if at first I struggle to understand them - I am simply more intrigued and willing to try and work out what they want.

In France however, when I speak French to a native French speaker the look of blank incomprehension on their face often makes me fear I have inadvertently requested two beers from the village idiot. I mean - we're in a bar, I am on the patron side - he is on the serving side. I have asked for "deux pression sil vous plait". Even if my pronunciation is as awful as I suspect it might be- is French such an ambiguous language that it is impossible to work out what I want? "What about context?" I shout silently to myself.

I can't believe that there is a national conspiracy to deny Englanders beer unless they speak French like a native-born neighbour of Sarkozy.
 
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I have a schoolboy grasp of French. I can understand more than I can articulate.
It's got me by. I even managed to buy a spark plug in a motorbike shop for a (french resident) English friend who hadn't any idea at all.
However I really struggle to even get started on Italian or Spanish.
I also have trouble understanding foreign people who are trying to speak English. We had a friend who is married to a Slovakian girl (who works as a translator, she's lived here 15 years) and I have to make wild guesses at what she is saying.
And when it comes to Africans speaking English, the rhythms they use to speak floor me.

I guess some people find language easy. I don't
 
I have found that even if a French person speaks school boy English they are far more embarrassed at using it for fear of looking stupid. When you get to know them more their English improves as they are not as embarrassed of making a fool of themselves.
French is a language where you do have to pronounce things correctly otherwise they cannot understand.
There is also no logic behind the Le and La, it is just historic and something that is learnt from birth.
An interesting point is that the French cannot pronounce words with "th" in it.
Ask them to say something such as "This Thursday it's the thirteenth" and it will take all day. They don't have that sound in their vocabulary much the same as we have problem with that guttural sound as if we are going to spit which they use and the rolling of words.
Add the regional variations ie Oui pronounced wee or whay depending on where you are. Also French speak a lot more with facial expressions and arms than we do. Sometimes an animated conversation is like a dance.
 
"French is a language where you do have to pronounce things correctly otherwise they cannot understand"

Not sure how true that is - I am with Hamma on this one.

I am quite good and I will speak in French to only receive a reply in English that demonstrates that they have quite clearly understood me. For example after asking said barman for my "Un pression et un verre de vin blanc s'il vout plais" and being served my drinks I am asked for "Ten euros please Madame".

Perhaps this summer I should insist in French that they reply in their native language and also that they assist me with any pronunciation issues that I have so that I can improve in my attempts to speak their language in their country!
 
elton said:
I don't understand how this debate is still going on. English is the official, internationally recognised language of the sea. It doesn't matter who's waters you're in. Likewise with aviation.
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Not SO!

In France only ATC and Major Airports seem to speak english

Most small regional airports only speak french

I just have a good look ,join circuit and say "en vent arrière" and “en approche finale” at the right time.

You can always seem to find someone who speaks english when it time to pay the bill :D
 
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