Quote:
Originally Posted by Less
For goodness sake, hardly ANY of us have ever bothered with a second language!
Our idea of communication is to shout at the natives when we are abroad, even when we move there to live.
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I don't think that is strictly true........many of us learn languages to go to holiday destinations......we might do it badly.....we might even feel very uncomfortable speaking it....but we try, and in trying, we endear ourselves to the locals....who then take pity on us, and show us that they
do speak english......if only a little, and a common respect is born out of this.
That has been my experience anyway....and I go off my own experiences.
I am pretty sure that if I moved, lock stock and barrel to another country I would either choose one where english is spoken, or I would make a concerted effort to learn the language, enough to let the indigents know that I was trying to integrate........I certainly would not expect to have my
adopted country to make changes to its culture, to accommodate mine.