Duolingo article on people replying in your native language

[John Little]

Today's duolingo article is about trying to use your target language abroad but people replying to you in your own language. It discusses how you should respond and why they do it.

They ask if they are dismissing your clumsy efforts or simply trying to be helpful. But my question is, how do they know what your native language is?

Why do people in other countries assume you must be an English speaker if you can't speak the language of the country you are in? What is it about us that gives it away?

On our first visit to Brasil, I might have given it away when I thanked a shopkeeper with the masculine "obrigado" and she replied with the feminine "obrigada". I mistakenly thought she was being helpful by correcting me so said "obrigada".

For those of you who are not aware, Portuguese has a male and female version of *thankyou". It seems a bit unnecessary but women say *obrigada" and men "obrigado". So I fell at the first hurdle.

[MoniqueMaRie]

When I read it with the suggestion that the person who wants to practise German should say ‘let's rather speak German’ when a German answers him in English, I thought ‘ok, so I'd better speak German to him because my English is so horrible’.

[John Little]

..... I thought ‘ok, so I'd better speak German to him because my English is so horrible’.

Oh not it's not!

[Explorer]

Personally I prefer that the person who comes from another country chooses the language. If you speak to me in Portuguese, I'll happily respond in Portuguese. If you speak English, that's fine too. And if it turns out you only speak Toki Pona, well... I'm sure we could figure something out with hand gestures and funny sounds

[Corinnebelle]

Maybe it's the accent that gives it away? Can other people confirm? Or do they throw English at everyone?

[Cifi]

When foreigners ask for something and communication in German turns out to be difficult, I'd usually offer to switch to English no matter where I think they are from. Basically this is because I don't speak other languages well enough to be helpful (except for Spanish, but English is usually more likely to be understood).

[John Little]

When foreigners ask for something and communication in German turns out to be difficult, I'd usually offer to switch to English no matter where I think they are from. Basically this is because I don't speak other languages well enough to be helpful (except for Spanish, but English is usually more likely to be understood).

The more I think about it, the better your answer is!

[John Little]

We took our kids to France when they were young and we were younger. We stayed in a gite on a farm that had a games room. There were some young kids in there who spoke Dutch to our two blond kids and getting no response, tried French and then German before settling on English.

[rudi]

Cool thing that the french kids were able to speak 4 languages. What you learn as a child, you little forget.

[IceVajal]

Cool thing that the french kids were able to speak 4 languages. What you learn as a child, you little forget.

That's the reason I envy my halfbrother a bit... Our father was German, his mother Danish, so he was bilingual, he grew up in Luxemburg with French and the local dialect. And in school he learned English and Spanish.

[Gentianopsis]

In the Czech republic, there are many foreigners in Prague, but not as much in smaller cities and in the countryside further from famous tourist spots. Travelling all over the world is way too expensive for most of the Czech people. Thus, when we meet foreigners and guess from their accent (or from an overheard piece of their dialogue) that we are actually learners of their native language, quite some of us (especially young people) do not want to let such opportunity to practise on the poor foreigners slide, if they get a chance to talk to them. So, even if those foreigners try to speak Czech, they get replies in their native language. I know that it is very unpolite, so, please, forgive us.

However, I actually never met a foreigner-tourist trying to speak Czech to me. Germans (and Austrians) always talk German in the Czech republic and often get really rude when we do not reply in German to them. Americans (who do not seriously plan to settle here) never speak other language than English and act as if all the world is obliged to speak only English. Ukrainians called "war refugees" and agency workers from Ukraine no comment (I do not want to be rude and have to explain myself at the police station because of that later), but Ukrainians who came to the Czech republic earlier and do not work here through agencies bringing cheap unqualified labor force to the Czech republic for foreign companies, usually try their best to master Czech language and become Czech citizens, so, we speak Czech to them. Slovak language is very similar to Czech, thus, Slovak people living in the Czech republic usually do not even learn Czech: they speak Slovak to us, we reply in Czech and we understand each other perfectly. Unfortunately, Czech people in general are not multilingual and usually communicate with foreigners only either in English or in German regardless what country they come from (or do not communicate at all and run away ).

[MoniqueMaRie]

.... Czech people in general are not multilingual and usually communicate with foreigners only either in English or in German regardless what country they come from (or do not communicate at all and run away ).

It seems to be similar in Slovenia.
In the north, due to the close proximity to Austria, you can speak German there without any problems, at least in all restaurants but no English.

In the rest of the country, English tends to be spoken in the tourist sector but no German.

We, two Germans, were in Slovenia in 2018 with two Americans. They always spoke English to everyone everywhere. In northern Slovenia, we had to be translators. Quite a surprise for our friends that there were touristic places in the world where no one spoke any English.

[rudi]

However, I actually never met a foreigner-tourist trying to speak Czech to me. Germans (and Austrians) always talk German in the Czech republic and often get really rude when we do not reply in German to them.

I hate that thoughtless way they are. When I'm travelling to another country I try at least to learn the words for "please, thank you, good morning" and so on and it helps a lot. At least the people don't run away
But another question to you: I heard in Poland it is very rude to speak Russian to them and I understand, although the languages have some similarities (from my point of view). How would you react? Would it be unpolite to Czechs, too, or would they consider me an idiot or would it be even helpful?

[Gentianopsis]

But another question to you: I heard in Poland it is very rude to speak Russian to them and I understand, although the languages have some similarities (from my point of view). How would you react? Would it be unpolite to Czechs, too, or would they consider me an idiot or would it be even helpful?

Speaking or not speaking Russian in countries that used to belong to former Warsaw Pact (and the same goes for all EU countries in general) has nothing to do with the Russian language itself - it is purely a political issue and discussing politics is forbidden on Duome, so, I hope I will not write anything too incorrect.

You are right that Polish and Czech belong to the same language family as Russian, we only use another alphabet and have some differences in letters and sounds we use. It is like comparing English, Dutch and German or Spanish, French and Italian.

At the end of the World War II, most of the Czech Republic and Poland were liberated by the Soviet army, mainly Russians, Russians became heroes for Czech and Polish people because of that and all the kids started to be taught Russian at school. Thus, everyone, who went to school before 1990, when the Warsaw Pact lost the Cold War and crambled, had Russian as an obligatory school subject and these people can still understand Russian, although they are quite hesitant to speak because of 30+ years of not practising it. After 1990, we started to "belong to the West", everything related to Russia was labeled as bad, and after joing NATO, Russia was labeled as our worst enemy, although there was no threat from it either to EU or to NATO and they still were those who saved our nations (Czech nation was right after Jews on the Germans' list and the other Slavic nations followed). Since 1990, children has to learn English and German at school, and if you want to learn Russian, you have to pay for a language school, so, the young generation in the Czech Republic and Poland generally cannot speak Russian. And because of all the propaganda that grew even stronger after the Russian invasion to Ukraine, everyone in the Czech Republic and Poland is supposed to hate everything Russian. Something of that is really a cruel irony, because as the main reason why the Czech people have to hate Russia is named the occupation of the Czech Republic by armies of the Warsaw Pact from 1968 to 1991, while the US Army is stationed in Germany, Italy and Japan since WW II and nobody in those countries (and all the EU) is allowed to hate the USA for that. The funny thing is that the Warsaw Pact armies were not only the Russian army and there were actually very few ethnic Russians in those forces: these soldiers were mainly Ukrainians, even the current Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko's father was among them, and now, the Czech Republic supports Ukraine against Russia because of blaming Russia for occupying us for those twenty years. I am not able to comment the animosity between Poland and Russia well (at the beginning of the WW II, Poland was divided between Germany and Russia, the Polish border was changed ofter WW II: they got something on the West in exchange for losing something on the East, and because of that, a part of the historically Polish area belongs to Ukraine now, Poland is very closely attached to the USA now... and of course, as neighbouring countries, Poland and Russia had many clashes throughout the history), but the current situation is that Russia is labeled an enemy of Poland and everything Russian is labeled as evil and bad.

If you try to speak Russian to me, I would definitely try my best to speak Russian to you, but in general, English and German are a safer option in both the Czech Republic and Poland.

[Corinnebelle]

@Gentianopsis I never knew of the Germans targeting Czech people. I heard of the Jews, Romany, and Poles as well as dissidents, mentally "unstable" etc..

[Gentianopsis]

@Gentianopsis I never knew of the Germans targeting Czech people. I heard of the Jews, Romany, and Poles as well as dissidents, mentally "unstable" etc..

Well, the Czech (and Slovak) nation is a small one, so, it is easy to forget about us. Poland is definitely much bigger than the Czechia, and Gypsies are one of the EU favorite minorities, so, no-one can neglect them.

Unfortunately, I do not know any good sources in English about that. This is a short article on Wikipedia in English: Final Solution of the Czech Question (this article is many times longer in Czech language there). All Slavic nations were considered to be inferior to Germans, but because there are some blonde blue-eyed people among us, they wanted to turn the chosen suitable ones to Germans (they were stealing Czech children to be taken to Germany and raised in German families - it was an inspiration for example for the story They called me Leni ). Because Czechoslovakia used to have a highly advanced industry, during the WW II, Germans used our factories (and their qualified employees) to produce stuff for the war, and many people were taken to Germany basically as slaves (my grand-grandmother was among them) to work there because of a high level of education and skills Czech people had at that time (+ because there was a strong German minority in Czechoslovakia before WW II, almost all of the Czech people were fluent in German). Czechs were useful to Germans during the WW II, so, not that many were slaughtered during it ("only" about 350.000 Czechoslovak civilians). However, as the end of the war was approaching, many Czech villages were completely destroyed and all of their civil inhabitans including children were killed (Lidice is the most famous one). When Germany started be aware of their losing the WW II, the plan to spare suitable Czech people (after erasing their language and culture) changed into "kill them all" and they started to massacre civilians just for not being Germans.

[Corinnebelle]

@Gentianopsis I think I've read about some of the struggles of Eastern Europe during the second war, just hadn't read about the Nazi's eugenics plans for many of those nations.

[Gentianopsis]

@Gentianopsis I think I've read about some of the struggles of Eastern Europe during the second war, just hadn't read about the Nazi's eugenics plans for many of those nations.

Jews were definitely Nazi's prime target and were persecuted by Germans at the whole area of the current Czech Republic. The estimate is that before the WW II, there were about 120.000 people of Jewish religion living here and during WW II, at least 80.000 of them were killed and about 30.000 managed to leave the country. Recently, there are about 4.000 people of Jewish religion in Czechia. The decline of Jewish population in Czechia was really drastic back then. The major synagogues in large cities have been usually maintained as a cultural heritage after the WW II, but the small ones mostly vanished, because there were no Jews living there anymore and small towns and villages could not affort to maintain them. You can still find remnants of Jewish cemeteries no-one attends all over Czechia, only a handful of them are maintained as a tourist attraction or by local communities of history lovers.

[xX_KalaKasiAnseli_Xx]

What gives us away? Foreigners see me, boom, they throw English at me instantly.
Jeez.

[MoniqueMaRie]

What gives us away? Foreigners see me, boom, they throw English at me instantly.
Jeez.

They are throwing English at me too - and I am German.

Nowadays everyone (in almost every European (?) country) has a tendency to speak English with everyone know doesn't look or sound instantly native.
I, too, sometimes have this habit of speaking English to people in Germany who look or sound foreign. Most of the time, but not always, it is the right choice of language.

[Linda7Italian]

Strangely when in Italy and I used my very best Italian, they usually asked if I was German. Can't think why. "No no, try again" I hinted, and English or Swedish would follow. Always ended up in a friendly conversation in part English part Italian.

[MoniqueMaRie]

Strangely when in Italy and I used my very best Italian, they usually asked if I was German. Can't think why.

I have the feeling that German pronunciation is closer to Italian than English. That could be the reason.

Perhaps you are already halfway to understanding German too?

[Linda7Italian]

"German pronunciation is closer to Italian than English"; hmm, not too sure about that. I think the confusion was more about appearance than any German or Swedish accent, hair colouring, complexion etc. Chissà chissà; -)

[Explorer]

Well, at least German and Italian have logical spelling rules. That's something

[Linda7Italian]

You are so right Explorer. Few hidden letters though the Italian "gn" has its moments

[Vlot Vlaams]

But my question is, how do they know what your native language is?
What is it about us that gives it away?

Well, in some cases it can be too obvious:

• in first place it's any random combination of
  --- unusual/inappropriate/wrong
  --- with pronunciation/intonation, and word stress.
  héhé
  Some letters/sound can be very typical, and are a giveaway for your native language.
  Like the "r" or the "th".

• in second place - the idiom. Natives don't talk according to pure grammar. Half of what they say is by "expressions"

• and in third place your "look", "posture" or obvious evidence in your face of DNA inherited from your roots.
  Some regional characteristics are still very present and dominant in the genes of people.

On satellite TV, one can see and observe people from all over the world.
Try to guess where they are from by not having subtitles.

Here are some famous people speaking not their native language, but it comes through how hard they try.
Schwarzenegger had - for his films - special training to speak English - yet you can still hear he's German speaking Austrian.

People speaking German themselves can even distinguish - rather easily- between the variations of German, Northern, Southern, Swiss, or Austrian.

Then there are those Finnish people: many famous WRC Rally drivers, or the comedian Ismo (Mikael Leikola). Easy to recognize he's from Finland, but maybe it's just me because I worked with a lot of Finnish colleagues in the past.

Or the French... typically they don't pronounce the leading "h" and tend to add -e too often,
as in "ott dogue" for "hot dog"

Spanish are very easy to spot too - they'll say "ch" for an "h" - "went wit chim", and they would very much roll the "r", and be the only ones to pronounce their first name "jorge" correctly.

Dutch from The Netherlands can't be mistaken. (the reporter here is Dutch, faking to be from the BBC - he uses Dutch expressions, translated word by word). Another Dutch comedian/presenter - was famous for his Dutch pronounced German speaking. They would do all the same with English.
The Dutch natives can easily be recognized also when they speak German (like Rudi Carrell) or Spanish (Johan Cruijff)