How people react when you try to speak their language

[duome]

Is this true?
Share your experiences!

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I have been learning Spanish for half a year before going to Spain (this is how I discovered Duolingo) and French before my 3rd visit to Paris after trying to buy some stamps and an envelope on my 2nd visit there - me not speaking any French and them not speaking any English or any other language - it was a complete disaster, and then I realized that English "envelope" = French "enveloppe"

I've actually had some really nice conversations in French, so "please don't" wasn't my experience )
But "instant friendship" was very true in Spain and Italy

[HeyMarlana]

I learned German in the late 90s in a classroom setting for a full year before taking a trip to visit some friends in Germany/Switzerland/Austria. I once was comfortable at an elementary level. I could ask for things, explain how I felt, and have simple conversations such as talking about family or pets. But as a native English-speaker, do you think when I got there I could practice any of my German? Spoiler: Nein.

[John Little]

Most people can speak English better than I can speak their language. In my experience, the French are the least tolerant of The faltering French attempted by English people and the Spanish are the most forgiving. But they all tend to give up and speak back in English.

[Explorer]

This map is pretty accurate assuming you've got an A1 in every language.

With a basic level, you’ll make instant friends in Portugal, Spain and Italy.

In France you need at least a B2 and exquisite pronunciation.

In Germany you'll need a C1 in Hochdeutsch, plus a little knowledge of the dialectal variations, plus several months or even years to earn their trust. Beer may cut down the time, but nothing's guaranteed.

[Linda7Italian]

I've been going to language schools in Italy instead of beach holidays and haven't met one Italian who wasn't happy to help, talk a little English, help me find my B&B, explain the double negatives (as used here) and teach me to say "Permesso!" through the crowded alleys of Venice. A local baker noticed my "student" bag, spoke slowly so we could converse and subtly increased the size of my takeaway lasagna each evening. So all in all, I think the shading for Italy is absolutely spot on.

[Stasia]

I disagree with the "Please don't" in France. My French is not pretty but it is functional (I can understand others and others can understand me), and French people switch to English only when I make a clueless "huh?" expression. I did perfect my clueless "huh?" look in bigger cities, where they just speak too fast for me to parse it. In some cases, their English was worse than my French, so we would go back to French. In rural France people rarely speak anything else than French*, so I did not have much choice there, but they also speak slowly enough for me to understand easily.

---

*I learned about the existence of Franco-Provençal/Patois, but I saw that one only in writing - among the people I talked to, that language got lost at least a generation ago.

[Scemer]

That map would be accurate for Americans, they have a really thick american accent while trying to speak other languages. It's similar for other ethnicities as well but other ethnicities have more relaxed accents.

[Stasia]

That map would be accurate for Americans, they have a really thick american accent while trying to speak other languages. It's similar for other ethnicities as well but other ethnicities have more relaxed accents.

I was thinking the same thing, too - maybe people don't try to speak English with me because I do not have an English-speaker accent in other languages.

[PtolemysXX]

That map would be accurate for Americans,

I was thinking the same thing, too

I concur with that as well. The map is full of stereotypes.
My experience in Czechia can be anything from "instant friendship" to "no reaction" to "nice try, let's switch to... German". It really depends on so many factors: where you are, who is the person you talk to, do they feel comfortable speaking other languages, do they have time...
If I want to practice a language, one of the very first sentences I say is "I don't speak English" in English putting on the most horrible accent I can utter so as not to leave any doubts...

[Scemer]

That map would be accurate for Americans, they have a really thick american accent while trying to speak other languages. It's similar for other ethnicities as well but other ethnicities have more relaxed accents.

I was thinking the same thing, too - maybe people don't try to speak English with me because I do not have an English-speaker accent in other languages.

Well that depends if you live in Poland and nobody speaks in english with you because of your accent then that's fine, but if you live in America and no one speak to you in english then that's not a good thing. Also, you can try getting an english accent. I have learned to mimic accents from a young age as I have lived in Britain, India and I won't share the country I'm currently living in but you get the point. I learnt to speak in each of the accents from those countries but keep in mind that it's best to learn other accents when you're under the age of 12 because thats when your accent sets. I'm not saying you can't learn an accent if you're above 12, I'm just saying that it may be harder.

[MoniqueMaRie]

In Italy last year - at least in restaurants - I always found that the mostly young waiters immediately switched to English when they realised that I was German.
Unfortunately, my Italian is too bad to pretend that I don't understand English.
So Italy would be light blue for me (Cute, but let's switch to English).

In France, on the other hand, I always react as if I don't understand English. I always get friendly answers in French - or German. More French people speak German than you might think, especially in gastronomy.
Outside restaurants they accept my French - but instant friendship is just as little French as it is German. You remain politely distanced - and that's ok.

[MoniqueMaRie]

My experience in Czechia can be anything from "instant friendship" to "no reaction" to "nice try, let's switch to... German".

That's exactly what I experienced in Slovenia. Our American friends were quite surprised that they didn't get on as well with English as in other countries.
If you can't speak Slovenian there, you should know some German.

[Stasia]

Well that depends if you live in Poland and nobody speaks in english with you because of your accent then that's fine, but if you live in America and no one speak to you in english then that's not a good thing.

The topic is about people reacting when you try to speak their language, so... in South America, people speak Spanish to me and they can even pinpoint my accent to a very specific location on the border between Peru and Bolivia, which makes sense as that's the area where I spend the most time so I must have acquired that accent. When I have a conversation in another language in South America, it's usually in Quechua, although I used French with some lost French tourists, too.

In North America, the parts where I spend the most time, the majority of people speak only English but I do get the "so where are you from?" once in a while (although less so nowadays than in the past), or my interlocutors ask whether I'm Russian, because I guess all Slavic speakers sound similar and Russia is the best known of our bunch.

Also, you can try getting an english accent. I have learned to mimic accents from a young age as I have lived in Britain, India and I won't share the country I'm currently living in but you get the point.

I tried to get rid of it by taking a voice and diction class - the kind that theatre/broadcasting students take. That class did help to make my accent much less thick, but there are some vowels that I just can't differentiate. My poor professor tried to make me hear the difference between "nuts" and "knots" until he was blue in the face, and I still don't get it.

I learnt to speak in each of the accents from those countries but keep in mind that it's best to learn other accents when you're under the age of 12 because thats when your accent sets. I'm not saying you can't learn an accent if you're above 12, I'm just saying that it may be harder.

Well that ship has sailed long time ago. I will say, though, that it depends on the language - specifically, on how similar/dissimilar are the sounds in your native and target language. I started to learn Spanish when I was older than 12 and yet I achieved a good accent, because I find Spanish sounds to be easy. I find French and Quechua sounds to be less easy but not too difficult, with English being the most difficult.

[LICA98]

I remember going to Poland a couple of years ago and my mom called me while I was there and asked what language I'm speaking and I was like "I'm not speaking any language" lol but the few times I needed to speak people had zero reactions whatsoever because I speak quite well and people probably just assume I'm Russian or Ukrainian living in Poland

also Finland should definitely be green and not red

[buho]

brazil, mexico, colombia, peru, are all "instant friendship unlocked"

[PtolemysXX]

going to Poland (...) and my mom called me while I was there and asked what language I'm speaking

Interesting. I heard once from a Russian native speaker not knowing any Polish that for him Polish sounded completely unfamiliar, like no relation at all. That's the feeling I have when I listen to Slovenian...

[Explorer]

It can be worse. I've heard quite a few people say that Russian sounds similar to Portuguese, which makes no sense at all

[Scemer]

It can be worse. I've heard quite a few people say that Russian sounds similar to Portuguese, which makes no sense at all

yo I think Russian sounds similar to Portuguese too. I think it's because of how the people from those countries sound like when they speak english. The accent is similar when they speak english. There is the rolled r and the sharp v (idk what else to call it) and probably some other similarities.

[LICA98]

going to Poland (...) and my mom called me while I was there and asked what language I'm speaking

Interesting. I heard once from a Russian native speaker not knowing any Polish that for him Polish sounded completely unfamiliar, like no relation at all. That's the feeling I have when I listen to Slovenian...

yeah it probably does for someone with zero knowledge but I've studied on duolingo for a couple of years

[LICA98]

It can be worse. I've heard quite a few people say that Russian sounds similar to Portuguese, which makes no sense at all

I've seen this vid and heard about this theory but to me it never sounded like European Portuguese, if anything it sounded more like Brazilian because the sounds there are more "soft" (e.g. unstressed e being ɪ instead of ɨ, t being pronounced as ch)

btw I was recently in Belgium (in Brussels and Charleroi) and I was on a tram and there was a woman with a child sitting next to me and I have my headphones on so I'm listening to music but at the same time I can hear them speaking thru the music and I'm like "are they speaking Russian??" (which was very weird because they didn't look Russian at all) then I paused the music and listened more clearly and no they were speaking French
then a similar thing happened several times with completely different people in a bus and in a grocery store, when I listen to them thru music it sounds like they're speaking Russian but when I pause and listen to them I can clearly hear they're speaking French
I've never experienced anything like this in Finland or the USA but the first time I'm in a French speaking country it happened like 5 times in 1 day

[HeyMarlana]

...I've heard quite a few people say that Russian sounds similar to Portuguese, which makes no sense...

The AI voices in the examples don't help matters. The AI voice for Portuguese sounds monotone and a male-sounding lower voice, which is a typical Russian tone. The example given of the Portuguese voice is like some actor playing someone part of the Russian mob in a Hollywood movie.

[HeyMarlana]

...if you live in America and no one speak to you in english then that's not a good thing.

I can't speak for Americans, but in Canada more people are accepting of tourists and immigrants. Those who have some roots going back a few generations sometimes take an interest in someone who is "from somewhere else".

I think this is because when we consider travel, it's within the same area of our own country where we can always rely on English or French (depending where we are) to get by the entire way. Culturally, it's the same Canadian melting pot of multiculturalism, and the same Canadianisms along the way, such as stopping at a Tim Hortons, and happily chatting with strangers with each pitstop.

Canada is so vast, that the idea of travel can consist of more land-coverage than that of what Europeans can cover, while staying in one province, never mind the fact they'd still remain in Canada. The area of Ontario is a bit like cramming all of France and Germany together, and some Ontarians note that it can take days' worth of traveling time just to drive across their province. With that sort of vastness, it creates the perspective that if we were Europeans, frequent spring/summer travel for a family going from Edmonton AB to Nanaimo BC is the same 1239km distance as a family from Frankfurt that will drive to Rome a few times a year.

That said, when we do run into people and hear accents or hear another language, it's exciting to a lot of us. "Where are you from?" is something I know I've asked, simply out of interest and respect that I get to meet someone who came from another land far, far away and somehow ended up pumping gas next to me at some gas station in Tulameen. I mean, what are the chances?

I've been told in recent years that asking can be rude, because it implies that you're othering someone. So I back off unless the conversation naturally has the information brought up. But most Canadians are tolerant of other languages and will find a way to communicate just for the sake of doing so. Some bad eggs are out there who bitterly demand English or French out of someone, but for the most part, I think we like the diversity since we're so stuck in one big place.

[PtolemysXX]

It can be worse. I've heard quite a few people say that Russian sounds similar to Portuguese, which makes no sense at all

I wouldn't call it worse... just a strange coincidence .

We already have a dedicated topic for this:

viewtopic.php?p=97749-why-does-portugue ... ish#p97749

Here are the key points from the langfocus' video (features that may contribute to mistaking one language for another):

• 1:28 stress-timed languages: In a stress-timed language (...) unstressed syllables become compressed and shortened. This results in a lot of vowel reduction.
• 2:33 consonant clusters: Russian and other slavic languages also have a lot of consonant clusters and because of the heavy vowel reduction in European Portuguese it ends up having more consonant clusters than other romance languages.
• 3:50 sibilants ("hissing" consonants)
• 6:30 frequent voiceless sibilant "sh" - at the end of words in Portuguese as well as the assimilation of sibilants to the following consonant making them either voiceless or voiced that might unconsciously remind us of the similar but more generalized pattern in Russian. That same pattern is also a feature of Polish and most other slavic languages with Ukrainian being a notable exception.
• 6:54 hard/soft (palatalized) consonants
• 7:55 dark "L"
• 8:22 nasal vowels and diphtongs (common between Portuguese and Polish but not Russian)

[lrai]

living abroad it's been interesting how my lack of the native language can be positive and negative. Most of the time people here (China) are very tolerant of my poor Chinese and they try if I am trying. Sometimes it just is useless to even try. If I say some similar phrases then they think my level is good and suddenly I am in way over my head. The best is when I try using my ASL (Am. sign lang) with people who "speak" CSL (CN sign), and the odd part is we manage okay if we both try. My favorite is when trying to communicate the Chinese person switches to writing it down for me in characters (not pinyin) and is very confused that I can't read it...even after 18 years I find that one a hoot.

My favorite story was the time I needed to buy a cork screw and of course that isn't a word you learn right away or ever. I tried first going through the whole store look but when I just didn't see one I finally asked by using "mime" and the shop owner lit up and came back with a toilet plunger. I began to laugh and then took a piece of paper and drew a picture of what I wanted and finally he got it and got me a cork screw...it was pretty funny.

Moral of the story, if both parties stick with it they will find a way to communicate even if it takes "mime", or pictures or the ever present translate feature on your phone. Communication isn't a problem, willingness to try is often the barrier.

[Linda7Italian]

I remember popping into a pharmacy in Lucca and in my finest Italian asking for something for my sinusitis, indicating I couldn't breath too well. I was advised that the pharmacist would need to see me more discreetly and offered to take me "through to the back". After much chat, miming and giggling they explained that "seno" definitely did not mean sinus and that the pharmacist was not qualified to test "elsewhere".

I went back a year later and sweetly asked for "Uno spray per il naso" and amazingly they remembered, with more miming and much laughter. Viva Italia!

[PtolemysXX]

I needed to buy a cork screw and of course that isn't a word you learn right away or ever.

The same thing happened to me while on vacation in China. I understand the pain. I was lucky enough to find the thing somewhere in the shop.

When you try to look for the translation on google the first word that GT comes up with is something that has a meaning of "bottle opener". Not every bottle opener is a corkscrew or has a a corkscrew though. It makes the situation more complicated if you have to explain to the shop owner what you need in more detail.

[Explorer]

Most people don’t care that much about languages. They just learn enough to get by in daily life or at work. But I think most of us are here because we have a special interest in languages, other countries and cultures in general. We’ve been talking about how people react. But what about you? How do you react? Are you patient and understanding, or do you switch to English straight away, even if the other person keeps trying to speak your language?

For some extra context: someone with a clear foreign accent and terrible grammar comes up to you to ask something. You’re not doing anything important, just chilling there. You can see that this person is excited, genuinely interested, and clearly doing their best to speak your language. What do you do?

[duome]

Most of the time I was trying to speak a lot more slowly and properly, notably avoid slang (we don't fully realize hom much slang we use in real life, which doesn't make ANY sense to those who learn our language and it's definitely not the best thing to teach them - I mean, it's ok as a bonus, but otherwise .. it's not the best thing to teach and to learn).

Interestingly I even picked up some words from people who spoke my language and I still enjoy speaking the same way - it helps me rememember these people )

What I do regret is when the roles were reversed once when I visited France (Bayonne), I was introduced to someone who took Russian classes in the past and somehow I didn't realize that they were interersted in talking to me in Russian, so I kind of ignored it and switched back to English (I didn't speak any French back then). If they visited my hometown and tried to talk to me in Russian, I would get it right and talk back in Russian, but speaking Russian in France was the last thing I could think of (and now I have no idea why not).

[Stasia]

Most of the time I was trying to speak a lot more slowly and properly, notably avoid slang

That is definitely the proper thing to do!

If they visited my hometown and tried to talk to me in Russian, I would get it right and talk back in Russian, but speaking Russian in France was the last thing I could think of (and now I have no idea why not).

I know how you felt - it's this overwhelming feeling of cognitive dissonance, because the language sounds so "out of place."

Most people don’t care that much about languages. They just learn enough to get by in daily life or at work. But I think most of us are here because we have a special interest in languages, other countries and cultures in general. We’ve been talking about how people react. But what about you? How do you react? Are you patient and understanding, or do you switch to English straight away, even if the other person keeps trying to speak your language?

I'm afraid my cognitive dissonance takes over when I hear foreigners trying their best in Polish - my first reaction isn't "nice try but why bother?" but rather: "WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU DO THAT TO YOURSELF?" and immediately try to find another language of communication.

[duome]

"WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU DO THAT TO YOURSELF?"

Speaking of Polish: I'm trying to do this to my mom , we used to live in Poland for a few years many years ago and she used to speak some pretty good Polish, she said locals were surprised and sometimes thought she was a local too. Now many years later I'm trying to trick her into doing Polish on Duolingo to refresh her language skills and keep her entertained, but, alas, I fail each time I try. Those days are probably too long gone now and she doesn't see a reason why she would be doing it after all this time, with no one to talk to.