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).
Yes true but that statement is also true for anyone else. Yet you don’t see that sense of entitlement
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.
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.
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.
A third what?
Eye. Clairvoyance really helps with bug testing.
Language
Ahhh
Language.
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…
The Irish are increasingly bilingual it’s just that they’re learning their own language, not anyone else’s
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.
I can speak Thai so I guess I’m okay
I can’t speak Thai but I am not complaining because I’m not an asshole
-
because they’re frequently proven right, English is the most commonly spoken second language after all
-
Americans who can afford to travel abroad are generally more wealthy, and tend to be more over entitled in all aspects of their lives
-
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.
I’ve been to a few other countries. The people (especially retail workers) are extremely patient. All it takes is a smile and “excuse me” and they will try as hard as they can to build a communication bridge. I don’t know why we Americans have no patience
deleted by creator
I think you should go take a nice walk. Could do wonders for you
I got confused, I was replying to daniskarma below this op
BECAUSE ENGLISH ALWAYS WORKS IF YOU CAN SPEAK IT LOUD ENOUGH
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?
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).
Because they often do. And most non native speakers really work at it too. Love them for it
as if it’s not the english making this complaint
Go from Wales, Alaska near the Bering Strait to the southern tip of Florida. You have traveled 4,580 miles (7,370 km) in 14 states and provinces. At no point were you not in a jurisdiction that was predominantly English speaking.
Mandarin Chinese may have the most number of native speakers, but English has the most number of total speakers, and those speakers are spread much more widely around the world.
The US is a business, economic, and geopolitical powerhouse. So was the British Empire.
I’m not saying that every other language should crawl in a hole and die. I’m currently taking a crack at learning Spanish. But there are pretty solid reasons why Americans make assumptions, even if they are erroneous sometimes.
I think the point is that Americans assume that people speak English in countries where English is not the predominant language without first making even the slightest effort to adjust to the local language and customs. And it really comes across as assholery.
Go from Wales, Alaska near the Bering Strait to the southern tip of Florida. You have traveled 4,580 miles (7,370 km) in 14 states and provinces. At no point were you not in a jurisdiction that was predominantly English speaking.
Laughs in Russian
Go from Wales, Alaska near the Bering Strait to the southern tip of Florida. You have traveled 4,580 miles (7,370 km) in 14 states and provinces.
I really want to do that, though I was thinking Washington (state) to Florida. Want to drive the Florida Keys at one point definitely. I’m a foreigner though, idk if they even let you stay in the country for vacations that long lol
It looks like the type of visas that are usually used for vacations give you 180 days per stay and last for 10 years. From what I’ve heard, they’re either fairly easy to get a hold of or ridiculously hard depending on your country of origin. In other news, everything in the US around visas and immigration is fuuuuuuccccckkkkked.
Besides people speaking bad English to you are braver and more engaging than the average person in general. Id speak bad English with just about anyone before talking to most of my family lol.
Thanks for the examples
We do?
I’d think that this sign is not there because of American tourists. All the Americans I’ve met while traveling, have acknowledged that English being their native language is a privilege and have been very polite towards people who don’t speak English that well. But in Europe English has become the universal language and it’s easy to forget that not everyone can speak it as well.
I was responding to the title, which was typed by OP, not to the image. I don’t know why you responded as if my comment was directed at the image instead…?
I didn’t. The TL:DR of my response is that in my experience Americans don’t presume that everyone speaks English.
I certainly don’t. It’s a huge part (besides cost) of why I find the prospect of travelling to other countries to be very intimidating. I don’t want to be a pain in the ass for the locals when I can’t communicate with them properly.
I live in the Netherlands, where it’s not the Americans assuming everyone speaks English. Sometimes it’s quite bizarre too: we have this deaf, Ukrainian colleague who doesn’t speak but communicates with Russian Sign Language (and whatever gestures you can think up on the spot), and it’s very blatant that he doesn’t speak English because he doesn’t speak and can’t hear, and has never written any notes in English or anything like that, but I’ve still caught other colleagues mouthing, or sometimes outright saying, things to him in English, as if it’d help. I remember once coming across a mute man who obviously understood Dutch, who then tried to ask someone a question, who then replied in a very “my husband is antiquair” kind of way. Otherwise it’s mostly European tourists and immigrants who assume you speak English.
Why’s everyone assuming this isn’t in America? I’ve seen signs like this here and it’s immigrants’ way of saying “listen we’re trying to speak your language well, but please be sympathetic as it’s our second (or more) language”. We’re generally fine with people not speaking English when we’re outside America, it’s inside our borders that we’re tremendous assholes about it
Because the plants and the building look very Thai, or at least tropical and not in the US.
I say it because every time I try to speak in someone in their language, they immediately switch to English. (even the one I’m pretty damn good at)
Because of the dominance of English, many people learn it and that’s enough to talk to people from many countries, but what are we supposed to do? We can’t learn all the other languages.
Classic mistake of someone Thai trying to speak English. They forgot to write the words “long time” at the end.
LOL. Bet few got the reference
From an award winning war movie made by one of the most prominent directors of all time that had the referenced line sampled in a famous hip hop song?
Or was it something else?
The movie was “Full Metal Jacket”
