• octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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    18 days ago

    I always hope that everyone speaks English and if they seem worried about how it sounds I remind them that their English is way better than my their language which usually breaks the ice.

    • RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      Heard someone say this on reddit many years ago after someone was being a wise ass about their English which was obviously second or third language

      You speak English because it’s the only language you know; I speak English because it’s the only language you know We are not the same

      • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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        18 days ago

        That’s pretty funny, but I’m years past accepting the “hurr durr ignorant american knows only one language” thing. Except as a response to someone harassing someone about their English capabilities, as seems to be the case in your example. 😁

        The way I figure it, if the people two states away from me in every direction spoke a different language from me, and from each other, I’d probably be multilingual, too. (As would most of us)

          • snooggums@lemmy.world
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            18 days ago

            No, because these people are also highly likely to also know English and the vast, vast majority of people in any given location speak English as a default in public. Unless another language is being commonly spoken in public, it isn’t even close to having entire states speak a different language.

          • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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            18 days ago

            Within the USA, the language enclaves aren’t strong enough. You might find people who can’t speak English, but there are enough people in their communities that can speak English that you can get along.

            Of the countries I’ve visited so far, I find that Mexico has the strongest language barrier as Mexico is large enough to maintain an internal standard of Mexican Spanish. Outside of the northern border states, you can drive two states away in Mexico and still have people speak Spanish.

          • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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            17 days ago

            I’m sure there are people who go to Mexico/Canada as often as Europeans seem to be popping into other countries, but most of us very rarely do.

            But most of us do have to visit other states often, which works out to a similar radius as hopping countries in Europe in many cases, that’s why I made the comparison I did.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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        18 days ago

        Most people I’ve talked to who know English as a second language speak and read and understand it better than most American’s I’ve spoken to who know only English.

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      Yeah I hung out with a bunch of Germans who were really good English speakers but constantly were self critical of their English skills. They were beating my German skills by a landslide even at their worst moments.

  • 5714@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    18 days ago

    Even if you speak Thai, complaining about someone’s foreign language abilities as a foreigner is rude.

      • Lumidaub@feddit.org
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        18 days ago

        Unless they’re from a primarily English speaking country, they’d be unlikely to complain though.

        • Droggelbecher@lemmy.world
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          18 days ago

          I’ve met lots of people who seem to hold the sentiment that if THEY managed to learn English, why can’t EVERYONE ELSE?

        • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zip
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          18 days ago

          Yeah they wouldnt complain… except if theyre my grandfather who started complaining in vietnam to a hotel receptionist that they dont speak hungarian, a language about 14 million people speak in the world and the only language it has mutual intelligibility with is spoken by about 10000 people…

    • usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca
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      18 days ago

      Wait, in that case maybe complaining is a bit justified? Different of course of it’s a place off the beaten path, but if it’s a hotbed of English-speaking tourists then having staff that speak their language seems pretty important.

      Guess it’s really hard to say without more context (story of the internet).

      • Voyajer@lemmy.world
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        18 days ago

        I don’t even know why some native speakers complain about having to deal with broken English when the learner only needs to know a tiny fraction of the language to be intelligible. As long as they have the vocab, grammar is mostly optional.

  • leadore@lemmy.world
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    17 days ago

    Just remember that any Americans vacationing in other countries are Americans who can afford to travel to take a vacation in other countries (and can even take that long of a vacation at all), and that explains the sense of entitlement and rudeness you see which gives Americans a bad name.

    Also except for Canada and Mexico (and even for them depending on where in US you live, to get anywhere is a very long, expensive plane trip).

      • leadore@lemmy.world
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        17 days ago

        What statement are you referring to? The point that it’s far more expensive to travel from North America to a country in Europe for example, than it is to travel between countries in Europe? Maybe Thailand would be as expensive for both, though, I don’t know. Or the point that most Americans get much less vacation time than Europeans so again, only the more privileged Americans generally have the time off to take an overseas vacation.

        Of course some regular people also take those vacations, but it’s probably a once-in-a-lifetime big deal that they saved up for a long time as a dream. Those aren’t the ones acting entitled, they are appreciating the opportunity.

  • daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    18 days ago

    To be fair. Learning english is a must nowadays. The closest we have to an universal language.

    And I say it as a non-native English speaker.

    • ILikeTraaaains@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      As a developer in a non English speaking country, in the last decade having English in your resume has moved from nice-to-have to mandatory, now the nice to have is having a third one.

    • Dasus@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      One random thought I had about this the other day was that I feel sort of bad for the British, Irish, Americans and Australians. Well, the monolingual ones.

      Anytime they go abroad, it’s like “oh they didn’t even bother to learn the language”, but then when we who didn’t grow up on English do, we’ve already learned at least English, so not knowing the local language is somehow more understandable. Or perhaps people don’t feel that way, but it’s just a thought I had. Like it feels less polite when a native English speaker just addresses someone in English in a foreign country, but if a non-English speaker asks “do you speak English” with broken English, it’s much more… sympathetic.

      I’m just babling nevermind me.

      I do agree with you though and can’t really understand people in my country who still say they can’t speak English. I mean, people who still use the internet and consume media that’s in English. I don’t get it. Language acquisition gets worse sure, but it’s never gone away from me at least. I watch one season of some show in a language I don’t understand and I already start picking up the very basics. Nothing I could use, surely, but like my brain is clearly structuring and trying to make sense of the language, so with enough exposition to a language…

        • Dasus@lemmy.world
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          17 days ago

          I know, and I’m sorry for not putting up a further disclaimer, but the English have destroyed so many cultures and languages that listing them all would’ve just taken up too much space.

          Gabh mo leiscéal, I have the utmost respect for the Irish.

    • theangryseal@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      I’m sawwry, I don’t speak ‘at squeaky squacky, beep boop shit. Why don’t you try talking like an American?! You’re in American space space!

  • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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    18 days ago

    I’m American and I am continually shocked and grateful how commonly I’m catered to internationally. I mean it’s not fair in a sense but also there does need to be a global language and the English happened to be the right kind of assholes to win that honor.

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      It’s not necessarily just for Americans. English is the most spoken language in the world when you include people’s second language. That German tourist probably isn’t going to know Thai and that Thai cafe probably isn’t going to know German, but they can muddle though with English.

      • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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        18 days ago

        Right. I was addressing the title of the post. I am assuming Americans are among the worst among presuming English should be spoken everywhere, but I don’t fall into that category. I marvel at the fact that it’s so widely spoken.

    • MBM@lemmings.world
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      18 days ago

      It’s always so foreign to me that anglophones never need to switch to English to communicate internationally, that’s just their everyday language

      • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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        18 days ago

        Yeah, it’s pretty crazy to me and I’m an anglophone who barely knows other languages. It’s a marvel.

    • 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
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      18 days ago

      Because they’re the only country with America in their name whereas United States is shared by Mexico

      Also in English there’s a distinction between North and South America, with the supercontinent being referred to as “The Americas”, so America isn’t really ambiguous, they’re also geologically and environmentally distinct enough that “The Americas” isn’t used so much and “New World” is often more relevant to include Australia as another somewhat culturally similar sparsely populated former colonial area.

    • Borger
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      18 days ago

      Same reason why people from the United Kingdom are called ‘British’, despite Northern Ireland not being in Britain.

      There just aren’t better proper adjectives for these 2 countries.

      While you can say ‘North American’ to mean anyone from North America and not specifically the US, I’m not sure there’s a fitting word that refers to anyone from North or South America. Although, at that point, the group of people you are talking about is perhaps too broad to be useful in most cases.

      • zaphod@sopuli.xyz
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        18 days ago

        Same reason why people from the United Kingdom are called ‘British’, despite Northern Ireland not being in Britain.

        Ireland is part of the British Isles, so you could even call people from the Republic of Ireland british (and then run away really fast).

      • inv3r510n@lemmy.world
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        18 days ago

        And saying North America includes Canada, and I think out of respect to the Canadians they don’t wanna be lumped together with us

      • BetaBlake@lemmy.world
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        18 days ago

        Because there’s always got to be some young “boo America” edgelord contrarian that thinks they’re really doing something by saying it. But really they are just an idiot in a long line of idiots who isn’t saying anything at all.

      • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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        18 days ago

        US Americans are seen by basically everyone as the most obnoxious tourists on this planet. Their self importance and undeserved national pride is second to none and it shows in every thread like this. Its just fun to see them get defensive when anyone points it out.

        This is literally what that sign is about and its odd that you are confused that people would point this out.

    • NeatoBuilds@mander.xyz
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      18 days ago

      Just what people commonly understand so people say it. I always read it in a disapproving Russian accent because of too much TV, the americans

    • Moc@lemmy.world
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      17 days ago

      I can’t speak Thai but I am not complaining because I’m not an asshole

  • doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    17 days ago
    1. because they’re frequently proven right, English is the most commonly spoken second language after all

    2. Americans who can afford to travel abroad are generally more wealthy, and tend to be more over entitled in all aspects of their lives

  • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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    18 days ago

    So here’s something wild I learned.

    To Canadians, when I speak French, I have a very thick American accent. However, when I speak English to Canadians, they really can’t tell my accent (presumably because I live in a bordering state?).

    I always respect anyone who knows just enough English to communicate something simple/frequent. Because there is no fucking way they’d understand what I was trying to say in their language.

    • DV8@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      Man that’s crazy, I speak French with an undertone of a Belgian accent, but pretty close to French general accent (I know every dept has their accent, chill!), but Canadians have an extremely heavy and weird non standard accent compared to other people.

  • AllOutOfBubbleGum@lemmy.world
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    18 days ago

    Man, that bugs me how many Americans are out there giving the rest of us a bad name. I don’t travel, but if I did, I’d be grateful a non-native English speaker knew any English at all. And not learning enough of their language to at least get you by for the trip just sounds like poor planning in general. Some people are just incapable of looking before they leap, and for some reason a bunch of those people travel.

    • Mickey7@lemmy.worldOP
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      18 days ago

      Are there still people that use an accent of the country that they are in but using English words expecting the native person to understand them?

      • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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        17 days ago

        That vaguely works in Japan, because they have a ton of English loanwords, and a lot of them wouldn’t be understood by a monolingual Japanese speaker unless you say them in a Japanese accent (it’s a bit more complicated than that but that’s the gist).

  • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    18 days ago

    Because gunpowder.

    Gunpowder go in metal tube.

    Projectile go in metal tube.

    Ignite.

    BOOM.

    Death.


    Human go new place.

    Bring Boomsticks.

    Native humans = Dead

    Native humans = Surrender

    World = Dominated

    Language = Spread

    Language = Become default

    The End

    Sadly Ever After

    (Fun fact most pilots have to learn Aviation English in order to operate internationally. You can thank the gunpowder for that.)

    Edit: Lol Lemmy Shitposts doesn’t like a shitpost about the british empire taking over the world.

  • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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    18 days ago

    Because western imperialism from English speaking countries has been around for at least 500 years and it’s given lots of countries time to learn it.

    But also I make sure to know how to introduce myself and ask if they speak English in basically every language I interact with as to not start with it. And then I have conversational understanding of about 7 languages.

    • Vaquedoso@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      I would say the English language supremacy started around 300 years ago, before that the preferred language was french

      • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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        17 days ago

        And Dutch. But let’s be honest it was a revolving door of Western Europe and they all new each other.

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      I’m enjoying hearing the stories about African slag infiltrating France and how the olds there are freaking out.

        • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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          17 days ago

          Historical though, the French had many colonies in Africa. That’s why many parts of Africa already speak French, or at least their own dialectic of it.

          • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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            17 days ago

            I am aware. It’s true for portions of Asia as well and is part of the reason for the Caribbean islands being a mess.