FilmFestGuy
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2009
- Messages
- 2,120
- Reaction score
- 1,244
- Location
- Nashville, TN
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Slightly Liberal
I gotta disagree, playdrive.
I won't even go to foreign countries as a TOURIST if I don't speak at least a little of their language. It's rude. I don't go to other people's countries and tell them to speak my language. And if I did, the people of that country would be justified in calling me rude - in their native tongue, at that.
Belgium has 3 official languages, and I learned a bit of all of them before I went just to be safe. I didn't learn a ton, but enough that I could get around, ask for food, help, directions, etc, and at least show them I was trying. And I wasn't even living there - I was just passing through. It's courtesy.
And just to be clear, I am not a language guru. I'm actually terrible at learning new languages, and I've forgotten everything I learned except a bit of German, since it's the most similar to English. But I made the effort, because I try to be polite.
To me, it's even the same of different versions of English. When I was working in New Zealand, I wrote my CV using THEIR spellings and replacement words ("flat" instead of "apartment" and the like). Because I'm in THEIR country. And while it may be spelled "color" where I'm from, it's "colour" in New Zealand and the American spelling is wrong. If I'm going to live in their country and ask their employers to hire me, I am not going to expect them to make exceptions for me. They were nice enough to let me live in their country.
And while it may be true we don't legally have an "official" language, everyone knows we speak English. Japan doesn't have an "official" language either, but don't try to tell me you'd go to Japan and expect them to speak English, or Spanish for that matter. My grandmother moved to this country as an adult, and while her English may not be great, she did learn it, because she is living in an English-speaking country.
Speak whatever language you want to your friends and family. But if you want to function in our society, yeah, you have to speak English. What's so terrible about that? :shrug:
You said you learned a little bit of the three languages of Belgium.
What if you were arrested for a crime you didn't commit while you were there? Would you feel comfortable speaking Flemish (or French, or Dutch) - or would you prefer a translator?
There is a difference between knowing enough to get by and testifying before congress or testifying to save your hide.