My son is in Portugal at present. Here is part of his e-mail: "Today, I was sitting in a cafe and some Americans walked in, walked up to the counter, and immediately started in English with, "Do you know any good places to eat around here?" The guy behind the counter shrugged his shoulders. They threw in a "gracias" as an afterthought as they were walking away. Can you imagine if someone walked up to us in the US and started asking questions in a foreign language? A polite "Do you speak English?" in Portuguese is all it takes. Also, Portuguese hate it when people don't acknowledge a difference between their language and Spanish." .......A lot of us will soon be taking some summer trips. For those of us who won't be learning the language of the country (I do speak some German, but will not be learning Hungarian or Czech in preparation for my trip), it is not bad advice to learn a few phrases, or just say slowly "Do you speak English?"
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Portland, OR, USA
389 posts
Thanks Karen for the reminder. I teach English Language Learners in a high school and it gives me a daily reminder of what it is to be the one out of your language. I try to learn please and thank you, good-bye and Do you speak English or something like that for each country. I've found in those countries that I don't know how to ask that, "English?" with questioning inflection gives people a chance to prepare if they do and respond in sign language if they'd like to help anyway. Hungary, and Croatia have some really willing helpful people if you appear humble in THEIR country.