studentsineurope

English Abroad: Friend or Faux Pas?

A Dutch sign in Bruges

We have it lucky, us Anglophones. We can walk into any store, hotel or club in any city, country or continent and be confident that at least one person there will speak English. For us, travel requires little confusion, a small chance of isolation, and almost no need for lingual preparation.

Making our way to the bottom of a bottle of French wine at a vegetarian restaurant in Zurich, my then-boyfriend and I discussed the idea – is it a blessing or a curse to be an English speaker?

“No matter how many languages I speak,” he said – four to be exact, “I speak English when I leave the country.”

“But isn’t that a shame?” I said, in clear objection to English as a worldwide language (I do love a challenge). “If that’s the case, you don’t have to speak any other languages at all.”

“Exactly,” he said.

I’ve always somewhat resented the fact that English can take you anywhere, and have embraced the idea that one should speak the language when in the country as part of the submersion process. No matter how poor it sounded, I spoke to every person I met in Zurich in German – until, of course, one or both parties gave up and reverted to English out of exhaustion. It seems, though, that the lofty idea of using each country’s language when abroad has become a rather dated one.

“I speak English at least 50% of the time,” said a Swiss/Canadian friend of mine currently living in Berlin, “either with people from Scandinavia or North America…there are so many English speakers here.”

The idea baffled me – in Paris, I thought the fact that my international friends and I sat around café tables speaking English was simply because none of us were actually French. Never did I consider that – with the amount people traveling and the ease with which people move in and out of world cities – English would take over the daily conversation of, say, a native German speaker living in Berlin.

There are several reasons why English has become the world’s alternate dialogue, but the simplicity of the language (despite its large vocabulary, it has a very basic structure) is a big one. So is the “Americanization” of Europe, a true and unfortunate outcome of globalization and all this inter-country travel, and one most recognizable in the form of pop music and McDonald’s.

Regardless of how easy it is to speak English abroad, though, it may not always be the best idea. Despite most of the world’s firm grasp on our mother tongue, the citizens of your country of choice would like to know that you’ve at least tried to learn their language – even if it’s just a few introductory phrases.

One of the most common complaints I hear about the French is their refusal to speak English. “You’d better learn French,” I’d hear, “because they will not speak to you in anything but.”

Not true. Having taken some French before I went to Paris, I knew how to introduce myself and ask some basic questions – “Parlez-vous anglais?” being one of them. I found subsequently that, in most cases, my very attempt (though sometimes a failed one) to get my point across was enough to put a smile on even the most impersonal Parisians. The bakers, baristas and bookstore owners that I saw regularly eventually began to notice the improvements in my French and encouraged me throughout my study.

If you’re intimidated by a language barrier, don’t be. Invest in a good pocket dictionary, and practice phrases and conjugations with a good and easy-going language book – the Berlitz series is my favorite. Be armed with some basic knowledge of the language and an eagerness to learn more of it, and you’ll do just fine. I’ve been told that English accent is very pretty when heard in other languages - I’d hate for you to miss out on that compliment.