I didn't get it either

Actually the most embarrassing thing for me when I visit the cds is my own Spanish, I always feel as though I am showing off speaking Spanish on the coast, every one seems to be English when speaking there, in fact they quite often reply to me in English and it embarrasses me. I often use English on the coast for that very reason.

Obviously where I live you have to have good Spanish.

Anyone else feel like that?

I honestly think in a 50 years the world except for a few places like China will just speak English.

A timely reminder that there are some real arseholes in this world doesn't go amiss. A decent forum plods along providing sensible information for members and suddenly a nutcase who hasn't taken his proper medication pops up and posts crap.

It happens and you have to deal with it. After this one leaves us, the next one will be sharpening his pencil.

ehh you OK, think you need a lie down.

Yes, we find it very difficult to speak Spanish down in little England too!

it is a common Cantonese slang term for foreigners, and has a long history of racially deprecatory use.

literally meaning "ghost man" (the word "ghost" refers to the paler complexions of stereotypical Caucasians). The term is sometimes translated into English as foreign devil. The term arose in the 16th century when European sailors appeared in southern China as they were associated with barbarians.

Nowadays it is simply a Cantonese word used to refer to Caucasians without any negative connotations.

I dont feel that way at all. Its rubbish to say everyone speaks English on the CDS, they dont.

They probably do in the places you choose to go to. But if you chose to go to Spanish places you would hardly ever hear a word of English. I've never spoken a word of English to a Spaniard here, even when my Spanish was much worse years ago

And for the person saying every country except China will speak Englsh in 50 years. Absolute nonsense. I suggest you go and visit some non-English speaking countries and make your way off the well trodden tourist path

Whether you like it or not C'man there is little doubt that English is the international language of by far the greatest importance which is rapidly increasing it's influence in many directions with every passing year.
In most of the more northernly EU countries it becomes increasingly uncommon to find anyone who does not speak English apart from a few of the older generation.
Spain generally lags behind in this respect and I find it quite surprising how many young ppl still don't have a clue, possibly due to the fact that many areas still give emphasis to their local tongue as a second language before English.
Basically they aren't doing themselves any favours in this respect, bearing in mind that the World is a much smaller place and there are very few in this day and age who don't have the need or desire to travel to various corners of the globe whether it be for work or pleasure and that is apart from English becoming increasingly essential for international communications as well as the internet.

Not necessarily. All languages have their day. At one point you needed to speak Latin to do anything in the Western World, then French became more important.

As a Spaniard you dont need to speak English to do very well for yourself. It helps to have it as a second or third language, but its up to them. In my SILs office they speak English to clients across Europe as it is the common language for international client meetings. But they had to stop doing business with British companies as they couldnt understand colloquial English And noone in the British companies could speak anything but that. She said this is a common situation in Europe.

It would also help British young people to speak two of three languages and they do not. For that reason there are very few British skilled workers throughout Europe except in the big US and UK multinationals who speak English as the main business language.

After all, Spain, Italy and France has some huge multinationals, but you'll find you need to speak the local language work with them and it will help hugely, if you want to do business with them.

Ciao, and thanks for a really interesting thread. Just to point out that maybe Cantonese or Mandarin are the languages of the future? Important though English and Spanish are currently.
Ciao for now,
'o nonno

I agree with some of the things you say here but I am not sure the argument that people in the tourist areas should learn a selection of words in various languages is at all valid. It is just as easy for us to learn these said words in the country we are visiting isn't it? I don't imagine low paid workers in the tourist industry go into it by choice but out of necessity so I cannot imagine they would want to sit at home reading phrase books when they earn about 9,000 a year, to be fair to them.

back in abt 1970 I was at the Royal Navy Signal School where we were training NATO colleagues. One of the guys came from Holland and had to have A level English before they would consider taking him in to their navy.
(as an aside his living allowances, before salary, were higher than our salaries, he was saving all his salary and 25% of his allowances.)

notwithstanding the universality of English as a language it should not preclude us from learning the local language, its their country. If only that principle was used in the UK with incomers instead of running round printing things in their language, providing interpreters etc etc. and giving them a home from home.

Nichola,they should have more incentive to learn than a tourist paying a few thousand for a holiday to a place they may never visit again They have the opportunity anyway, free courses provided by the junta and surely serving tourist day in day out should enable them to pick up some basic words.

It's clear that a few of you on this thread think you are the only Brits that speak spanish but there are 2nd and 3rd generation Brits who have intermarried and many born in Spain too...it's been going on since the 70's

You need as always a balance in things. It's very good that we take the time and trouble to help immigrants to settle in, but we should ensure that they learn English too.