My Friends from the U.S.
I live a European country and there is a young American woman living on the floor below mine, and I have noticed that she never speaks the local language. Whenever she encounters an issue, she seeks my assistance, knowing that I speak English. To me, being a native English speaker seems like a gift. The ability to communicate almost anywhere in the world in English is a significant advantage. How would you characterize your experience as a native English speaker?
32 comments
I have no other frame of reference, so it’s just my normal.
You’re right. It helps sometimes when I travel, especially in the northern countries of Europe, where everyone seems to speak it. Other places too, because so many people who work with tourists have learned to speak it. Otherwise, I don’t feel more special than the native speakers of other languages.
It does feel like easy mode for accessing media as well as traveling, at least in certain places for the latter. I had a connecting flight in Denmark the other day and pretty much everyone around me spoke fluent English. Also speak French and Breton so I can understand how limiting it could be a monolingual French speaker, for example, when traveling.
>and I have noticed that she never speaks the local language.
probably because everyone just speaks English even if she tries to speak the local language. at least that’s been my experience.
Like other people says, it feels normal because it’s all I know.
That said, I’ve traveled quite a bit and I’ve come to appreciate it. When I went to Greece and Turkey, for instance, I was easily able to find people I could communicate with. My friends in Bulgaria, just over the border, would have much more trouble getting around. It’s also convenient speaking a “big” language. I never have to worry that I’ll be able to find content on the subject I’m interested in that I can understand. A Bulgarian friend told me that when she was in college a lot of her textbooks were in Russian (which imo is not so similar to Bulgarian that this wouldn’t cause problems) because textbooks on those topics simply didn’t exist in Bulgarian.
I feel bad that English is hard to learn, but I teach English to new immigrants in the US and admire them. I always wish I spoke more than a little of other languages.
It’s kinda weird. I learned French and Spanish in school for fun but I’ve only had to use them a very small amount of times outside the classroom. I think languages are really cool and am especially motivated to improve my receptive skills because I’m most likely to use those
It doesn’t feel like anything per se. I think a lot of native English speakers do take for granted that they speak the global lingua franca (such as the woman you’re talking about). It’s the main reason why multilingualism is much less common in countries where English is the dominant first language.
I can get by in Spanish but I’m not fluent. I’ve found in Mexico and Spain when I was speaking Spanish, the person I was speaking to would often just switch the conversation to English because it was easier to hold our conversation in a language that we were both fluent in rather than for them to have to figure out what I meant.
It feels normal because it is all we know.
While it’s nice that we don’t really NEED to speak any other language (US is HUGE and for most of the country, everyone within a 10-20 hour drive speaks English), you are a bit judged for not knowing other languages.
It’s sort of like cursive for us. It’s just does not come in very handy learning many languages.
A little over 20 years ago I spent about six months trying to learn Dutch so I wouldn’t be an asshole when I went to the Netherlands for school. I got to the Netherlands and EVERY time I tried to speak Dutch, I was given a curt, “I speak English,” and we would speak English. I knew they weren’t trying to be offensive, but it was just how they were.
In a way it is easyier, because someone always speaks English, but sometimes it is kinda insulting.
I have never needed to speak another language other than English living in the US. I am not near the border of another country. My area does not get a lot of foreign visitors. I can get foreign media that has been translated to English often.
I have not traveled outside of North America though. I know there are many places that English is also the main language or people know some. I would probably want to learn and try to use the local language though.
I suppose it feels easy?
It really is playing the game on easy mode, which also makes it a little sad. I was solo travelling through eastern Europe and I had so much fun when I found myself stranded in a little town where almost no one spoke English. It really made me realize how much of our conversations are about body language and expressions. It was so much fun learning bits of language along the way.
It’s super convenient. That said, I like to at least learn basic words or questions when visiting a non English speaking country. Hello, goodbye, where is the toilet, one beer please. You know, important stuff.
I appreciate it tbh. For whatever reason(probably British colonialism?, combined with American position in the world)..the rest of the world strives to learn it.
I used to travel A LOT and I was always so thankful English is so universal.
It’s my native language. I wish I was bilingual in Spanish.
But it’s just my every day experience in a majority English speaking country so it isn’t part of my identity.
It’s super nice for international travel. I’ve taken trips to several different countries in Asia and around Europe and while I try to learn at least a few words of the local language, everyone knowing at least some English makes things so much easier. Certainly because in most countries where people learn English as a second language they start young, and so they are really conversant. I minored in French in college, but most French people speak English far better than I speak French. English also seems to be the default 2nd language on public transport or for menus which is also great. It definitely feels like cheating sometimes that I just got handed this super useful skill where others have to work hard for it!
I am so happy that I have been raised to speak Gods own language.
I’ll settle with Spanish as a second but Allahu ackbar Arabic is a distant third and mandarin is far off.
Pretty great. It’s a very organic (read: needlessly and uselessly complex) language and learning it in an organic way must be so much less frustrating than learning it formally.
I learned Spanish both formally and then organically, and it’s a downright sane and sensible language by comparison. Or maybe I just don’t run up against the edge cases often.
I try to learn basic language before I I go anywhere that speaks a different language. Things like basic greetings, where is the bathroom, please & thank you, may I have the check please, and how to ask someone if they speak English. Plus there’s google translate.
As a frequent world traveler I’ve tried using the native languages outside the US but almost every time they would rather practice their English with me. I’ve kinda given up on it outside of the yes/no/excuse me type words.
The world feels more open.
English is the international language of business.
I think the opposite. Because the language is the lingua Franca, it kind of inhibits native speakers from the need to speak another language. It might seem like a lazy way to put it, but having lived in Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Japan, odds are that if the locals know a second language, it is probably English
It’s cool I guess, but I wish it was easier to be able hold onto another language. It’s harder to learn when there’s no chance of needing to actually use it.
I feel frustrated thinking about it. I appreciate that I’m native, that it’s easy to find others that speak at least a tiny bit so somehow it all works out and travel is usually easy mode for that reason. I’ve been to non-English speaking countries and been just fine as many places even have signs in the native language and English. I can absolutely enjoy non-English language entertainment because even if its only translated into one other language that language is going to be English.
But that’s the frustrating part – there is literally no incentive to learn another language and when you do the non-English speakers will almost always just switch to English instead. Hard to practice when everyone just speaks English back to you which makes you lose confidence in what you can say since you never practice. And confidence in language speaking is why more Americans don’t learn other languages – we doubt we can do it at all or right or get criticized for even trying so why try?
It’s taken for granted.
That said, if someone approaches you trying to speak the local language, you should at least *try* to humor them unless it’s something urgent. It’s literally the only way to learn. And they need to gain those skills if they’re spending a lot of time in the country because (1) they may need to learn for work or (2) they invariably will encounter people who only speak the local language.
Don’t be like the French. They are notorious for looking down on learners.
As someone learning spanish, as who works in an industry with lots of Spanish speakers, who also married a Spanish woman, it’s weird.
I love english, it’s a great language to know. Everywhere there’s English and English speakers.
When you don’t have that comfort of your native tongue, the world is strange but alluring and different.
I’m lucky to have been enveloped in a different culture, and learning it has made me a better person, and I’d say a better American, as now I can talk to even more people and be part of the American melting pot of culture.
On one hand it’s an asset as the global “lingua franca” of our time. On the other hand, perhaps due to this in part, the US is much more lax with teaching kids foreign languages in schools than other countries. That can feel like a disadvantage because learning foreign languages is harder as an adult, and as you grow and meet people from other cultures you realize you’re the only monolingual one.
I’d argue it is the best language to have as a first language. I’ve lived in other countries and it was never that difficult to find English speakers. Although I made an effort to learn the languages of the places I lived.
Also a lot of the internet is in English, including content creators from non English speaking countries. Most movies that aren’t in English have English subtitles available. Most airports I’ve been to have signs in English. I don’t think any other language has that privilege.
I feel fortunate, because I know English can be a difficult language to learn. That said, I love languages and learned 2 others to some extent, though my abilities have eroded due to lack of semi-regular use. Luckily, in years past I was able to use both in places where most people didn’t really speak English, so I have yet to experience the “I try to speak the local language, locals respond in English” phenomenon that others have mentioned here.