Vocal Voices

...if you moved to a foreign country would you:

a) strive to learn the language as much as you could in the hope to eventually become fluent.

b) learn enough to get by in day to day situations/conversations

c) not bother your butt even trying to learn because you're arrogant enough to think you don't need to bother.

Guess what bunch of not so smart alecs I had the misfortune to 'meet' tonight?!

Ally, on postings or long detachments with the RAF I always did b) and so have a smattering of German, Dutch and French.

However, from your post, I expect that you met a group from c). Thankfully the locals usually tend to body-swerve them and gravitate towards those of us at least willing to try, and then they try to help us out. I would do the same as the locals TBH if that's possible.

Ally, sorry you had that experience. Personally, I've never been any good at languages and I hated French at school, where I had a tyrannical teacher which didn't help. I was even forced to adopt a French pen-pal, which IIRC lasted for all of one letter!

But that said, if, heaven forbid, I was forced to move to a furrin country (like Scotland ), I would definitely be a (b) on your list, as a matter of courtesy and necessity, and I guess if I had time to work at it hard enough, I would try to be an (a), although I'd definitely need some one-to-one tuition.

And I would do that because I would not want to be like the furriners I've encountered in this country who deliberately start speaking in their own language in your presence (Anglesey), post messages in their home languages on the town's community FB page (Dorset), and speak loudly and incessantly in the home tongue on their mobile phones on buses (B'ham), all three of which simply wind me up!

Do you have local folk over there who offer classes to furriners who want to learn the lingo? We always used to have a huge number of "English As A Foreign Language" Adult Education courses over here, but with all the cut backs, you'd be hard pressed to find any nowadays ..... .

Workingman wrote:Ally, on postings or long detachments with the RAF I always did b) and so have a smattering of German, Dutch and French.

However, from your post, I expect that you met a group from c). Thankfully the locals usually tend to body-swerve them and gravitate towards those of us at least willing to try, and then they try to help us out. I would do the same as the locals TBH if that's possible.

Yes, it was a group from c) WM.

A group of 4 who'd been living in Spain for 17 years! Wayyyyyy long enough to speak fluently but hadn't bothered to even try to learn more than gracias and una cerveza!

It wasn't so much them not being fluent (but I bet if a furriner went to live in the UK they'd be expected to learn the lingo? What happens when you have children - surely you need to be able to converse with teachers at least? Ditto medical matters?)
No, what got my goat was their arrogant attitude of 'why bother'? Why not??!!

It's ok as they're going back to Fuengirola today where they can enjoy their English fry ups and Daily Mail.

Each to their own and all that....

We're still trying to be a) but are still firmly in b) I'm rubbish at languages, always have been, but thought that with lessons, listening, watching and more lessons, I'd be better than I am.

Funnily enough, we were being talked about in the bar yesterday. People forget that I know more than I let on. But it was nice stuff Not like our neighbours, they call him the burro or the pretend farmer

But, I can honestly say, that in the time here, I've learnt more than I ever did in the Algarve. Even though we were the only English in the village, everyone tried their English on us and so I learnt the local way of speaking,

Up here, very different, Yes, I know it's the same language, but think Geordie and Cornish

I am sorry you had to meet some of group c) Ally, here are still a few up here, who we avoid. They have their coffee mornings, books club, sewing club and other activities, all of which are frequented by English, with a few other nationalities, but very rarely, the Portuguese. They even only use two coffee shops in the town because the owners speak English.

We had a few similar experiences in the Algarve. One time, we apologised to to Sr Fernando, because of the ignorance of the English customers, the other, this bloke shouted across the rather wide street, "'Ere, where did you get that f####$## English paper"

I would definitely try for option A, although I have a feeling I might get stuck on B these days. I was good at languages at school, but I definitely don't pick things up as easily these days as I used to.

It's very arrogant and small minded to move abroad and not bother

I'd definitely be an option A if I were moving somewhere. Even if I go somewhere on holiday I try and learn the basic words like please and thank you and a few others.

Ally, I'll never forget my first visit to Jan and Grumpy I had the misfortune of sitting next to someone that fitted into Group C... he'd been living in Faro for about 10 years and hardly spoke a word Portuguese because "all the locals here know they need to speak English because we are their biggest customers". That 3 hour flight felt like one of the longest every - such an arrogant arrogant person.

Oh dear Ally. The type of English person who thinks if you shout louder at a foreign person, they will understand?
I'd try for a), b) as a minimum.
We used t have holidays in Italy and I learned a bit. Scusi, che una farmacia qui vicino? and Dove le fermata de l'autobus? and what have you.
It's nice to hear someone speak in a foreign language and be able to understand what they are saying,

Son went to work in Japan for a Japanese firm. He was taught to speak Japanese. He married a Japanese lady who could speak English. When they are together the speak in Japanese. Son is now working for a different Japanese company. I couls speak some German when I came home after over two years.

When I was in the RAF in Germanyin 1954, two other airmen from Wales went into s hop in Cologne There was a notice in the window which said the owner could speak most languages. He had difficulty understanding them when they spoke in Welsh!!

Definitely A! I think it's so arrogant to move abroad and not make an effort to learn the language.

I tried to learn some Czech for four days in Prague

BTW Ria, I was chatting to a lady in Stafford on Sunday - we were both waiting outside of a shop with our dogs - and blimey, she sounded just like you!