A Little Thing That Makes Me Crazy

[citygirl]

Meh - I'm actually happy when someone speaks to me in English. It makes my life easier
And FWIW, my Spanish is fine but I know I speak with an accent. It's not going away, I'm a gringa and that's totally okay.

 

[Redbeanz]

We just got back from Paris, where our m.o. is always to blend in, not carry things (such as English newspapers or other nationality giveaways) and, when on the Metro, to remain completely mute for the duration of the ride. As we were standing, waiting to exit at the approaching stop, a woman who also planned to exit, pushed past and loudly said, in English, "excuse me; I must get by."
Because few people visiting Paris would miss the body language even if they didn't understand the words (in this case, true cognates of the same in English), we decided that it must be her simple amusement to guess the origins of foreigners and speak their language rather than her own, perhaps in order to feel some superiority. Her tone of voice made it clear that she wasn't participating in France's "charm offensive" in order to make visitors feel welcome....

Maybe some of this goes on in countries where visitors' native languages appear to be different -- a kind of linguistic one-upsmanship achieved by speaking the Mother Tongue to people who thought they were doing very well without translation, thank-you-very-much?

Now, when I'm having trouble speaking another language, and am appealing for help, I am SO grateful! But we are talking about a couple of very different situations.

 

[Sockhopper]

Redbeanz,
You gave that lady no reason to think that you'd speak French. You'd decided to not utter a word in any language during the whole ride. It's unreasonable to take a holiday in a foreign country and expect to pass as a native of it. The French have been receiving foreign tourists since the 1700's beginning with the British. They get visitors speaking some 150 languages now.

The French city where I've been living for 3 years has flights landing every 2 minutes with foreign visitors for 5 months a year. Even I can spot now about 30 nationalities. I'd have to be blind not to. Imagine how skilled that Parisian lady with her history and who may have had a sudden emergency must be at identifying which language a foreigner is likely to speak. Note too that she excused herself to you. Her speaking English had nothing to do with feeling superior to you or being stuck finding a way to amuse herself. It has everything to do with French children learning English in school and with France and Paris being the most visited country and city in the world.

We get some French speaking English to us here. There's no point in getting upset or feeling disrespected by that. We're in their country. Communicating is what's important, not which language one uses. We felt 'accepted' here by becoming legal residents here.

The idea that people of a country will always speak their own language to visitors is a concept associated more with countries that in general speak only English.

 

[Redbeanz]

Redbeanz,
You gave that lady no reason to think that you'd speak French. You'd decided to not utter a word in any language during the whole ride. It's unreasonable to take a holiday in a foreign country and expect to pass as a native of it. The French have been receiving foreign tourists since the 1700's beginning with the British. They get visitors speaking some 150 languages now.

The French city where I've been living for 3 years has flights landing every 2 minutes with foreign visitors for 5 months a year. Even I can spot now about 30 nationalities. I'd have to be blind not to. Imagine how skilled that Parisian lady with her history and who may have had a sudden emergency must be at identifying which language a foreigner is likely to speak. Note too that she excused herself to you. Her speaking English had nothing to do with feeling superior to you or being stuck finding a way to amuse herself. It has everything to do with French children learning English in school and with France and Paris being the most visited country and city in the world.

We get some French speaking English to us here. There's no point in getting upset or feeling disrespected by that. We're in their country. Communicating is what's important, not which language one uses. We felt 'accepted' here by becoming legal residents here.

The idea that people of a country will always speak their own language to visitors is a concept associated more with countries that in general speak only English.

I don't feel a need to explain myself, but my Belgian husband found this very amusing.

 

[sesamosinsal]

I don't feel a need to explain myself, but my Belgian husband found this very amusing.

Would we know he's Belgian just by looking at him?

(Not even sure how you spot a Belgian, honestly. Do they run around with waffles on their faces?)

 

[Gringoboy]

If I had a penny for every 'de donde sos?' and 'porque vivis aca?' etc..........
One time a bloke came into the shop and simply said 'origen?'.
I often say Wales which is where most of my family comes from but you'd be surprised how many people haven't a clue where Wales is.
I lived most of my life in England, so when I say England it's always 'Ah, que lindo! Me encanta Londres'
You gotta laugh even if all the same questions crop up so predictably.

 

[Gringoboy]

Meh - I'm actually happy when someone speaks to me in English. It makes my life easier
And FWIW, my Spanish is fine but I know I speak with an accent. It's not going away, I'm a gringa and that's totally okay.

The accent thing is kind of funny really and unless I were to go into total immersion for a year or so, I'm never going to lose the accent which anyway, my Argentine other half says is kind of sexy and appealing.
Everything has its benefits one way or another.More than happy to be a gringo so to speak.

 

[Redbeanz]

Would we know he's Belgian just by looking at him?

(Not even sure how you spot a Belgian, honestly. Do they run around with waffles on their faces?)

Exactly! They DO wear waffles. To distinguish themselves from their French-speaking European cousins, the Swiss (who wear cheese) and the French (who wear fries). And from their north american cousins, the Canadians ( who wear bacon) and the Cajuns (who wear sausage). it is only when they occasionally forget that they are supposed to display their nationalities by wearing food stereotypes that helpful souls have to take a guess.

(As Gringoboy says, you gotta laugh!)

 

[Gringoboy]

Yes, that's really odd that they even know I'm foreign before I open my mouth.
That's pretty psychedelic.

 

[Girino]

The German often try to disguise themselves like this: