Ich werde nach Deutschland gehen.

But that's among travelers, who might be more inclined to learn the native language. You might find the same thing among international travelers in hostels in the US. But I'm talking about any equivalent situations that one might bemoan the lack of English speaking in the US and trying to find a parallel abroad.
 
Oversoul,

My statement about a law is in regards to "official" communication. As in, I would like no business (ESPECIALLY THE GOVERNMENT!!!) to be required to provide facilities to accommodate people who do not speak English. Obviously, there are always strange circumstances (hospitals, for instance, could save themselves money by having a translator on staff rather than subcontracting when there's an issue). Overall, though, I personally hate the influx of dual-language signage and paperwork.

That's my personal stance on the issue. But I'm just one man.
 
The only thing that bugs me about this is that they end up creating paperwork in both Spanish and English. Then, they run out of the English paperwork, so they give you a copy of the Spanish because that's all they have.

Personally, I speak Spanish, so it's not a huge inconvenience for me, but it still is annoying and seems to happen way more than it should. At least here in Southern California...
 
Spiderman said:
But that's among travelers, who might be more inclined to learn the native language. You might find the same thing among international travelers in hostels in the US. But I'm talking about any equivalent situations that one might bemoan the lack of English speaking in the US and trying to find a parallel abroad.
Click to expand...

I'm afraid I don't follow...

rokapoke said:
Oversoul,

My statement about a law is in regards to "official" communication. As in, I would like no business (ESPECIALLY THE GOVERNMENT!!!) to be required to provide facilities to accommodate people who do not speak English. Obviously, there are always strange circumstances (hospitals, for instance, could save themselves money by having a translator on staff rather than subcontracting when there's an issue). Overall, though, I personally hate the influx of dual-language signage and paperwork.

That's my personal stance on the issue. But I'm just one man.
Click to expand...

Ah, I see. In general, that seems sensible enough, although I can't help but wonder when circumstances would make it unfeasible or at least problematic.

EricBess said:
The only thing that bugs me about this is that they end up creating paperwork in both Spanish and English. Then, they run out of the English paperwork, so they give you a copy of the Spanish because that's all they have.

Personally, I speak Spanish, so it's not a huge inconvenience for me, but it still is annoying and seems to happen way more than it should. At least here in Southern California...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that problem diminishes with distance.
 
I do support the idea ofEnglish as the national language. The reason is the same as Spanish in Spain and some central and south American countries, and French in France, etc. Why don't we have one to make sure that communication is efficient and clear. If I go to Germany and the waiter only speaks French and I know some German... then I am screwed, in a sense. English is the one language that has become universal, due to businees and culture. Now, I don't expect a tourist to the US to learn english just to visit, as I wouldn't expect a Italian to learn French to visit France.
But, if said Italian were to move to France, it would be in their best interest to learn French.
We have a lot of people where I work from different countries and they all learned English to work here, not Spanish or French or even Korean...... I wonder why?

Ok that was sarcasm..... I am guilty.
 
I'm afraid I don't follow...
Click to expand...

I meant that you were among a small group of people who might be more inclined to learn the native language that they're visiting, as opposed to the general mass of people.

English is the one language that has become universal, due to businees and culture.
Click to expand...

I actually expect Chinese to take over "in the future", once they get their act together and become a leader on the world stage. Wouldn't that be something... everyone might be "forced" to learn Chinese (as in, it'll have to be offered in schools as English is in other countries right now).
 
Spiderman said:
I meant that you were among a small group of people who might be more inclined to learn the native language that they're visiting, as opposed to the general mass of people.
Click to expand...

I don't know what brings you to that conclusion, but I was saying that (excluding native speakers) not very many of the people I met while traveling in Germany and Austria learned German. So you think that they constitute a subset that is actually more inclined to learn German than other people visiting those countries?
 
On the topic of people learning (or not learning) the native language of a country they are visiting, I'm a firm believe in knowing two important phrases wherever you're going:

1. "Thank you." Generally speaking, a very simple phrase to learn. Though I once asked a Korean friend how to say thank you in Korean, and he responded with what seemed to be a complicated and surprisingly long answer. But it's easy in German, French, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese, among, I assume, many other languages.

2. "Do you speak English?" In some places (e.g., China), this phrase will be redundant, as the natives that speak English will likely identify you as American -- or not very many of them speak English, which is tough for everybody. My wife and I took our honeymoon in Montreal and got a lot of use out of this phrase, as I think most people appreciate the effort involved in approaching them in their preferred language.

So that's my personal entry for the official CPA Guide to World Travel.
 
I learned to say "City of Champions" in the native language while in Cleveland...... Didn't go over so well... :)
 
Running a Grand Prix...

BTW - GP Pittsburgh is announced for next year..... August and it's not teams, but actually standard...... we never get that.
 
Awesome thread... half this thread should be in our Political/Current Events section...

Especially the upscale tourism of cleveland video...
 
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