Faremax: Travel Forums

It is a common thing for travellers to just always expect to be able to speak English where ever they travel but this has always seemed hugely unfair to me. If foreigners have to learn our language to come here, then we should put in the same amount of effort when we go somewhere else.

With that aim in mind-specifically trying to improve my French-I took a trip to Dunkirk when I was in high school. We went to an area that wasn't hugely touristy-although we did spend time in the town. It was a week of having to rely entirely on our French because the only person we met who spoke English was a paid toilet attendant....

Have you ever gone on a trip like this?

That sounds a little bit weird. I think the toilet attendant is more educated compared to the residents of that town. I experienced the same thing in Japan. I was in a market where almost all vendors were purely Japanese people. I was'nt abled to buy a thing for souvenier because the salesgirl can't talked English and I can't talked Niponggo. I used sign language but still she don't understand. I gave up!

It was kind of strange, but I guess if you are sat in a booth in a toilet all day long, then you have a lot of time to read. I mean, all this dude did was hand us the toilet paper. For the other people we encountered, my basic French along with a lot of pointing and gesturing worked wonders.

I don't know how to speak French language. I tried studying the basic French but it's like a tonque twisters to me. Is it difficult to learn French especially for the beginners?

I personally found it easy-I took an accelerated course in high school, and in one year I caught up with the students that had been studying for three years. This accelerated program was only available to students who had a certain average grade across the board, and a high grade in their German studies.

For me, language learning comes fairly easy.

Wow! Thank's for the encouragement Jo. If you can do it, why can't I? I'll try my very best to learn French language. It's very useful to me not only for travelling but also in applying job overseas.

I think that everyone should have the chance to learn a foreign language at some point in their life. Unfortunately it's just about the way our brain works-some people are good at languages, and seem also to be good at music and maths. It seems that the brain handles those things in a similar way, and if you are not built able to do them then trying can be awfully hard.

I did something similar when I was at school, and it was very satisfying to be able to get by in a foreign language, even if it did take a lot of asking people to repeat themselves to get directions, etc.

These days I always try to learn the basics (numbers, dates, directions and simple phrases such as 'how much does this cost please') - I might not be able to hold a full conversation, but it seems people really appreciate it if you at least make some effort to talk in the local tongue.

I believe if we're going to visit a foreign country we should at least make the effort to learn some basic phrases. I mean, expecting the hotel desk people to speak English is one thing, going to local stores and expecting them to understand you is another. Besides, it's very useful to know some foreign phrases. I learned my lesson in Spain where the cleaning person took something of mine by accident, and he didn't speak a word of English so I had to use sign language. It was incredibly difficult.

I always try to learn as much of the native language where I will be visiting.  It is a lot easier for me though since I was raised speaking three languages, and learning others hasn't proved too difficult.