local

You can pm in Portuguese if you want.

PubChampion

'We're in France. This person speaks good French. I speak pretty basic English, but if I do speak English, it should make him feel more comfortable.'

They are trying to make it easier for you. Instead of you having to make an effort speaking their language, they make an effort speaking English instead. After all, they are serving you, not the other way round.

It doesn't even occur to them that you might take offense. They have no idea that in England anyone speaking with a foreign accent is a bloody foreigner and replying people in their own language is a way to make sure everybody knows it.

Jon_D

When I am in foreign parts, I generally try to speak the local chunter. Often I am met with "You speak good (insert whatever lingo you want here) for an English person"
To which I reply,
"No, I am Irish."
"Oh I see" says the native, "That's explains it then!"
Try it for yourself!

nigel.b

I see what you're saying PubChampion. It still seems like a put-down to me when it happens, but maybe that is a very English interpretation.

I've gone on at great length about this. Time to shut up now!

gedscottish

You need a trip up to here in the north as ery few people speak English

encodeme

yeh time to close this one.
When's Christmas...must be soon now

dragonflyblue

i know EXACTLY what you mean, the other trick i have learned that they find amusing especially when they are on holiday is to use portuguese slang words only used in there home towns, i worked behind a bar for a few months and i noticed that as soon as they realised i was not portuguese suddeny a small beer "imperial" became "Fino" to which i of course asked red or white (vino) or instead of asking simply "where is the reception" they would launch into a 20 ramble, Then act DISCUSTED that you would dare to work in there country and not understand every word they said, i learned the best phrase ever for this i cant write it coz my speeling in inglish is bad enough but it basically means, please speak slower, im learning portuguese but in the meantime, do you speak, any french spanish, dutch, german, italian
or english (they hate it if they think you are not just another english person too lazy to learn another language and they normaly start to act like normal human beings or storm off)

however i must say the brits are just as bad, one customer went bezerk when one of the portuguese staff didnt under stand that "yoke n rashers with a wide beer" ment bacon & eggs and a pint, ....... Im english and I Didnt have a clue what he wanted!

Helpful-Bob

I didn't understand it either.
At least Easter will soon be upon us

local

I don't know to what portuguese you are used to talk/deal or work with, but I'm not seing any of portuguese act discusted because a foreign doesn't talk or understands every word we say! when is totally the opposiste as far as I'm concerned, cause I work with tourism, and it has been a lot of foreign people that come to talk portug to me, and me and everyone who works with me never acts discusted, that is pure stupidity. More over, we know the difficulty in learning portug, and we accept too well if they have accent or don't say something correctly etc. We never correct them only if it's the person that gently asks us for the correct accent or word.

scott909

HAHA

encodeme

nearly time for Spring holidays....lets get booking, sun, sea and sleep!!

Algarveaddick

The French not snobby about their language????

I thought they even had a ministry to "protect" the French language from Les Angalis?

PubChampion

The French elite may well be, but ordinary people are not. Everybody is happy to hear you try speaking French no matter how bad your accent. Even speaking English is not an outright crime, at least not everywhere.

Now try these things in reverse in England.

Algarveaddick

I tend to agree with Nigel B, Pub Champion, in the UK we are used to hearing mangled English, and most people don't have fluency in a foreign language so the problem would not occur. I also agree that a bit of effort goes a long way, my French is not great, but I always try when I am in Belgium or France, and have never been offended when they talk to me in English, and have always found the people to be most accommodating.

In Portugal and a lot of the rest of Europe there is English everywhere, on TV, at the Cinema and especially in pop music. They are used to hearing it all the time. We do not have one prominent language that we hear in Britain all the time, so don't have the opportunity to pick it us as we go along. In most countries English is taught from an early age and it is the only language to learn, which one do you choose if you are British - German? French? Mandarin? Hindustani?

PubChampion

It's a valid point, but it doesn't justify the snobbiness. The fact remains that if you speak with a foreign accent in England, you are a bloody foreigner whereas if you speak French with a foreign accent in France, you are treated as a human being. You remain a human being even if you speak English in most places in Europe, whereas in England not speaking English makes you a nonentity.