4 points

Went to a pub in Reykjavik.

English Brother-in-law had finally decided to learn the language after like 15 years of living there. Had just about learned enough to order the drinks and have a basic conversation.

He orders slowly. The barman looks increasingly perplexed. He finishes and looks up, proud of his first real test of Icelandic.

“Sorry mate, I dunno what you’re saying” says the barman in a thick Australian accent.

Honestly, just try English. Most small European countries speak it better than we do.

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2 points

Lol I have a similar problem, I’m from Iceland but I don’t live there anymore, so whenever I go back I try to enjoy the novelty of speaking my native language as much as possible. Trouble is, almost every service worker downtown doesn’t even speak Icelandic lol

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1 point

I remember this one. I love this story.

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2 points

I once tried to order some drinks in a noisy bar in France. I thought I was explaining it ok but was not being understood by the girl behind the bar. It got really awkward and was making me seriously question my French (I’m English). Eventually it turned out that she was Irish and had equal but opposite holes in her own French. We had a good laugh about it and spoke in English thereafter.

Had she been Scottish tho we probably would have still been better off speaking in French.

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2 points

I, an American, once asked a person what language they were speaking… They said they were Scottish and was speaking English.

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1 point

I backed into someone in a crowded bar in Sapporo and said excuse me in Japanese and heard the same thing behind me. We both turned around at the same time and saw we were both foreigners.

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1 point

Sumi masen

Don’t know if this is the right spelling

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2 points

Any attempt by a foreigner to speak “cúpla focail” (a few words) of Irish to me has been incredibly well received. It’s usually Americans actually and their pronunciation is terrible, because Irish sounds nothing like it’s spelled when compared to the usual latin alphabet sounds, but fair fucks to them. I appreciate it very much.

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1 point

Think you miscolored Iceland, pretty sure most natives fall under the “Wait you learned a single word of Icelandic? You’re pretty cool for a tourist…”

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1 point

My experience in Germany is quite the oposit, they don’t wanna talk in english and will entretain your broken german unless they literally can’t unterstand you.

Even in the street I am approached in german and “I do not look german” at all.

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1 point

Granted I was only in Berlin for two weeks, but all but two people I interacted with didn’t immediately switch to English if they had something to say beyond the transaction. (A bus driver and a currywurst seller, who seemed genuinely annoyed that I was a tourist)

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1 point

Sounds like Berlin! Bit yes, most people in Berlin will speak english with you, even sometimes when you speak german.

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1 point

In Berlin in particular they might not even speak German themselves…

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1 point

Germany has a very big immigrant population, so plenty of people who don’t look German at all but speak fluently or even natively.

About English, they are very self-concious and they often say that they speak “a little bit” when they are for all intents and purposes fluent.

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1 point

Exactly!

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1 point
*

We used to joke that most Germans don’t speak English until you get them drunk, and then they are more fluent than native speakers.

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1 point
*

Do you speak english?

A bit

How much is a bit?

You see, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I have internalized the complex syntactic fabrics of the english languaje but I can make myself understood and even, under good conditions take syntactic liberties to stress my points, furthermore, although my vocabulary is not as extensive as my heart deasires, I have been making great strives to make it richer and fuller.

Dude…

Was denn?

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1 point

My experience is this: In Austria they want to speak English. In Germany they want to speak German. On a Lufthansa flight it’s 50/50 whether they ask me questions in English or German.

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1 point

It probably depends on where in Germany you are. One time in Berlin I started on my broken German and they reacted with a big question mark, and then back to English.

And 20-30 years ago you had to use German most places.

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1 point

Yeah, Berlin is a diferent breed. They will speak english to you there, is quite common.

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1 point

when my dad was stationed in germany all he ever learned to say was “which way to the train station?”

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1 point

So he literally “only understands train station”.

“Verstehe nur Bahnhof” is a common German expression to say that you have no idea what someone just said (because of jargon, or whatever), which supposedly comes from people that came to Germany and only new/understood “train station”.

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