Survive Europe with only English

devil writes:

Big difference between around Paris and the rest of the country though.

But the French will speak English just about anywhere today. De Gaulle
is dead.

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

Trent Stensnes writes:

I once checked in to a 3 star hotel in Paris and the receptionist only spoke
to me in perfect English the whole stay. When I was checking out, an
American couple walked in, laughing and talking really loud. While they were
waiting behind me, the girl started commenting to her boyfriend on how worn
down it looked and how small the reception was etc... When I was finished,
they asked for a room and suddenly the receptionist seemed to have forgotten
every word of English he knew a minute ago. He talked to them in French and
he had big trouble understanding phrases like "do you have a room?" and "how
much is it?" I guess he didn't like their attitude.

Would you?

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

Hundreds of thousands of people do it every year.

Somewhat guiltily for some of us, but that is the way the world works.




"Amber" wrote in message
om...
Hi,

I'm planning to travel to Europe. Most probably going to Holland,
France, Swiss and Italy. Is it possible to survive there if i don't
speak French or Italian? I've heard from friends that most of
Europeans don't speak English. Or they're very proud of their own
languages and refuse to speak to tourists in English. How true?
Appreciate if anybody can provide some tips.. thanks

Alan Harrison wrote:

"Reid" wrote in message
...
In my experience no taxi driver anywhere speaks other than his
own language!

Hmm, I dunno! I once carried on a conversation in Italian with a taxi driver
in Oviedo. He spoke no English, my Spanish is execrable, and he had worked
in Rome!

Taxi drivers may speak only their "own" language, but I found in Vienna
(as in New York), their "own" language is not necessarily the language
of the country in which they drive a cab!

Getting from the Christmas market near the Staatsoper back to my hotel
despite having the address (across the street from the Franz-Josefs
Bahnhoff) he required three conversations with his dispatcher (in some
language that was most certainly NOT German) to find it. He also took
me way out of the way to get there - the meter showed about two euro
more than the trip from the Staatsoper the previous night. (So I paid
him what I'd paid the driver from the Staatsoper - if that meant the tip
was less than adequate, I figured it was the driver's problem, not
mine.)


Alan Harrison

Trent Stensnes wrote:

"Amber" wrote in message
om...
Hi,

I'm Norwegian and only speak English when travelling. I don't know a word in
Dutch, French, Spanish or Italian but have never had any problems when I've
been around in Europe.

I once checked in to a 3 star hotel in Paris and the receptionist only spoke
to me in perfect English the whole stay. When I was checking out, an
American couple walked in, laughing and talking really loud. While they were
waiting behind me, the girl started commenting to her boyfriend on how worn
down it looked and how small the reception was etc... When I was finished,
they asked for a room and suddenly the receptionist seemed to have forgotten
every word of English he knew a minute ago. He talked to them in French and
he had big trouble understanding phrases like "do you have a room?" and "how
much is it?" I guess he didn't like their attitude.

I suspect that's how a lot of the rumours about "rude" Parisians got
started! I certainly have never found Parisians less than helpful -
often that helpfulness has gone way beyond anything I might reasonably
expect.

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...
devil writes:

Big difference between around Paris and the rest of the country though.

But the French will speak English just about anywhere today. De Gaulle
is dead.

But Chauvin is alive and well.

Following up to Mxsmanic

French people don't like to speak English.

That may have been true forty years ago; it isn't true now. French
people don't mind speaking English at all, although many of them are not
very fluent.

Its my experience, but there we go.
--
Mike Reid
"Art is the lie that reveals the truth" P.Picasso
Walking, Wasdale, Thames path, London etc "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Spain, food and walking "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

devil writes:

Big difference between around Paris and the rest of the country though.

I've always had a very friendly reception in Paris. It's not at all
as unfriendly a place as it's made out to be. People are polite,
helpful and friendly, they try their best to understand my appalling
French, then they switch to English if they can :-)

--
-- Chris.

Following up to Alan Harrison

In my experience no taxi driver anywhere speaks other than his
own language!

Hmm, I dunno! I once carried on a conversation in Italian with a taxi driver
in Oviedo. He spoke no English, my Spanish is execrable, and he had worked
in Rome!

spanish and Italian are of course fairly similar.
--
Mike Reid
"Art is the lie that reveals the truth" P.Picasso
Walking, Wasdale, Thames path, London etc "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Spain, food and walking "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

Following up to Trent Stensnes

I once checked in to a 3 star hotel in Paris and the receptionist only spoke
to me in perfect English the whole stay. When I was checking out, an
American couple walked in, laughing and talking really loud. While they were
waiting behind me, the girl started commenting to her boyfriend on how worn
down it looked and how small the reception was etc... When I was finished,
they asked for a room and suddenly the receptionist seemed to have forgotten
every word of English he knew a minute ago. He talked to them in French and
he had big trouble understanding phrases like "do you have a room?" and "how
much is it?" I guess he didn't like their attitude.

Yes, it always pays to start with "May I speak in English" in the
home language. France is particularly touchy about this sort of
thing.
--
Mike Reid
"Art is the lie that reveals the truth" P.Picasso
Walking, Wasdale, Thames path, London etc "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Spain, food and walking "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap