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Polarizing ships, innocuous ships



 
 
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  #1  
Old May 21st, 2004, 10:17 PM
RTCReferee
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Default Polarizing ships, innocuous ships

wrote:

(RTCReferee) wrote:

If I were cruising solo, I would probably feel comfortable in any language
where I could make out the words well enough to find them in a dictionary

or
phrase book. It's very easy, from my experience, to make new friends with
people of other cultures when you try to speak to them in their own language.


Often, though not always, they want to speak English and are excited to

meet
Americans who care enough to learn even a little of their language.


We were at a table for six on the QM2 last month. One couple was from
Germany and had a very small grasp of English, really only enough to
get along slightly. The other couple knew no German at all.

Hans, to his credit, tried to involve the Germans in our conversations
as much as possible, and it seemed to work out alright. We talked
about cars, ships and the Autobahn (sp?). The third couple told us
later that dinner was awkward for them on the nights Hans and I ate at
Todd English. I'm wondering if Cunard does any kind of screening of
the couples they put at larger tables? It must have been
uncomfortable for our German tablemates, as well. We could see they
were struggling, and it was awkward. Couldn't have been good for
their digestion.


Autobahn it is.

We really prefer dining at a table for two, so prolonged dinner conversations
in mixed languages wouldn't occur unless the Deutschland does not permit this
(and if there are no tables for two, we wouldn't likely book with them). I
agree that dining companions need to speak the same language. I am surprised
that Cunard didn't do a better job of matching language groups, at the very
least. Maybe they thought they had by virtue of Hans' name and a misspelling
of yours?.

Ja, Hans und Karin. :-)
  #2  
Old May 21st, 2004, 10:39 PM
RTCReferee
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Default Polarizing ships, innocuous ships

Karen,

I'd like to add that I know that Segboer is a Dutch name, not German, but most
Dutch (Baby Boomers and younger, at least) tend to speak some German, too.
Germans as well as Dutch are named Hans, and not too many Americans and
Englishmen are.

My Dutch friends each speak between four and six languages fairly fluently.
 




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