****ty exchange rate, any place in europe worth visiting?

"Bert Hyman" wrote in message
...
In erilar
wrote:

My experience in Scandinavia was that almost everyone seems to speak
excellent English, whereas in France almost no one seems to.

Not only did the Norwegians I met all speak excellent English, it was,
for the most part, colloquial "American" English. It was actually a
little unsettling.

To you, perhaps! They have an uncanny ability to shift gear - although I
haven't been to Norway I've met quite a few on the NGO circuit - and
colloquial American was undoubtedly one of several forms of English they
spoke!

Cheers,
George W Russell
Bangalore

On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:24:55 +0100, "Mike....."
wrote:
Ive never been to Croatia, but this everybody speaks english thing isnt
true in spain, is it in Croatia? I've also never been to a place where
generalisations like "croatians are freindly and helpful" are more than
generalisations, it rarely extends to traffic police in either context.
--
Mike........
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I've been to Croatia several times. Stick to the cities - Rijeka,
Zadar, Split/Trogir, Dubrovnik, Zagreb, anywhere tourists go - and
people speak English. Ditto Plitvice Natl'l Park, probably Opatija.
Get up into the hills and tiny villages and you may find the kids
speak English (they learn it in school) but in very isolated areas,
English is rare. We have elderly relatives up in the Velebits who
speak no English at all (and there are no kids up where they live). I
haven't been to the islands, but I would guess English isn't a problem
on the more touristed ones.

That said, as always, learning a few basic words and phrases is a good
thing. As for friendly and helpful, we found everyone we met to be
so, but then we didn't have any run-ins with police.

On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:16:33 -0700, Hatunen wrote:
When I lived in Wshington in the early 1980s you could not buy
liquor or strong beer in supermarkets,, only at special
state-licensed alcoholic beverage stores.

I'm in WA...you can buy wine and beer, wine coolers, mixers, in
grocery stores, but hard liquor and liqueurs only in state liquor
stores.

On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:41:24 -0700, "Mimi" wrote:
Trader Joe's isn't a supermarket, too small. It's more of a specialty food
store. Wine-wise, it's famous for Two-buck Chuck, a bottle of Charles Shaw
wine for $2.

It's three buck chuck in WA now...

Despite being a specialty food store (it's not trying to be an
all-purpose supermarket), it does have things you can't get in a large
supermarket. And even for those things available in supermarkets,
TJ's prices are often lower - pasta, rice (arborio, wild, jasmine),
olive oils, and nice cheeses. Their frozen fish filets are a bargain
(salmon, mahi-mahi, orange roughy, halibut, tuna and more), and their
frozen asparagus and pineapple tidbits are fabulous.

On 22 Jul 2008 18:22:28 GMT, Bert Hyman wrote:
For a European traveling to the US, the choice is rather simple, but
which of the world's languages should an American learn to speak in
preparation for travel?

French? German? Spanish? Lativan? Swedish? Norwegian?

Please instruct us.

It's not so much WHICH language, or learning for the sole purpose of travel,
but the discipline of learning a language which broadens rhe mind. I
fail to see how anyone can complain that learning a new skill,
becoming MORE educated is a bad thing.

On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:15:56 -0700, "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
wrote:
He makes a valid point! (Except that many Americans don't bother with
the politesse of "merci" and "s'il vous plait" before they begin making
impatient demands in English.) Is it possible we may finally get a U.S.
president who acknowledges the existence of a wider world?

Or one in the 21st century, or who knows his geography? Note that in
the last few days McCain has referred no less than FOUR times to the
(dissolved in 1993) Czechoslovakia, and this week to the non-existent
border between Iraq and Pakistan. None of his mistatements are
appearing in the mainstream media. We don't need another
"presidunce."

Following up to Carole Allen

That said, as always, learning a few basic words and phrases is a good
thing. As for friendly and helpful, we found everyone we met to be
so, but then we didn't have any run-ins with police.

my expereince in spain has been that the police and taxi drivers hardly
ever speak english. (I didnt have a run in with the police, there was a
road block on a couple of occasions, one for basque terrorists I assume,
given location and presence of heavy machine gun, the other probably just a
documents check. In the latter case it took a bit of arm waving to explain
I didnt want the helpful direct route to where I was going as I actually
wanted to follow the old road the long way round).

We caught ourselves out with a taxi driver who just couldnt get our
destination of "Calle Buenos Aires" because we failed to detect that we
were using our pre spanish learnt pronounciation, although the difference
seemed small to us, but he was mystified till I wrote in down.
--
Mike........
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Following up to Bert Hyman

French? German? Spanish? Lativan? Swedish? Norwegian?

Please instruct us.

Two things, learn a couple of politnesses in each language and acknowledge
you are using a foreign language that cant be assumed to be understood. Ive
seen english speakers not trying to supress regional accents and using
local slang and wondering why its not understood.
--
Mike........
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Following up to EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)

(Only the French, with their impish sense of humour, will keep you
floundering in French until you ASK if anyone speaks English!)


is that what it is?
--
Mike........
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Following up to Hatunen

If it's anything like Finland, it's because schoolchildren are
required to study English from an early age.

I would imagine not dubbing TV was a consequence of everyone learning
english at school. It seems to be the situation in a lot of places with
unusual languages that they learn english, not surprising really. But I
went into a bar near the railway station in Amsterdam and the barman had no
english.
--
Mike........
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