Originally Posted by IlAlfie (Post 11264899)

I have to say that my experience is completely different to this. Maybe you're a much more natural linguist than I am but I can assure you, speaking a foreign language every day, especially in the first year or so, is exhausting. It completely wears you down. I never found it easier to integrate in those countries. You may not understand and so ignorance might be bliss but believe me, you absolutely do not fit in more easily.

In the Netherlands, maybe Germany and Scandinavia, it might be easier on the face of it but not speaking the language will always be a barrier to full integration. My first European job was in Italy and although the workplace language was supposed to be English, it wasn't in practice. One or two staff spoke English sufficiently to communicate but the others didn't and so they preferred not to. And at lunch or breaks, English was never spoken. You just had to fit in. I was lucky and got 2 Italian lessons a week and within a year I was probably sufficiently fluent to hold a decent conversation and go to the cinema/watch TV. And I'm a pretty decent linguist.

It is a lot easier if everyone is peaking the same, fluent language. Sure, there will be misundertandings in the UK/US dialogue but they pale into insignificance when you're struggling to just buy food or get around

Originally Posted by Mitzyboy (Post 11265068)

Getting a job or communicating on a day to day basis in for instance in Spain or Italy is a whole different ball game altogether ;):)

Originally Posted by Mitzyboy (Post 11265068)

Thats because Belgium has more than one language

Originally Posted by steveq (Post 11265264)

...and the Walloon won't speak Flemish, and the Flemish won't speak French. And neither the Dutch, Belgians or French will speak German.

Originally Posted by Bob (Post 11265181)

I never said it was going to be easy. Just that it would be easier than one imagined than the US would be, just because the US speaks English, which is debatable :/

Originally Posted by Pulaski (Post 11265280)

One day they will all speak English! :nod: Most Dutch already do, and it is increasingly the language of business within Europe. Forward thinking parents already use English with their children, and universities are giving more classes in English, and offering degrees exclusively delivered in English. I find it interesting that English is increasingly used in Eastern Europe, which is "Germany's back yard", where you'd expect German to be used more..... Certainly my high-school German teacher did when he was trying to encourage us to take 'O' Level German.

Originally Posted by Mitzyboy (Post 11265580)

At a business dinner in Zwindrecht, after struggling with the menu, I told my agents that next time I came to Zwindrecht I would order the meal myself.

I got back to the UK and bought a Linguaphone course that cost me £200. Complete waste of money. Try learning the Dutch language, you are constantly spitting and growling. bloody nightmare .... I sold it on ebay years later. Thats why the Dutch speak English, because no one one has a chance of mastering their language :-)

Originally Posted by steveq (Post 11265585)

I once worked out how to ask for a room for two in Holland once. 'Heft U ein kemer fur dweren persones ?' and the reply, 'Certainly Sir, would that be smoking, or not? '

Originally Posted by andrewlohnes (Post 11265589)

Brilliant! :rofl:

I was in France once and asked for 2 Pepsi's in a bar, he said he couldn't understand me so I pointed to the Pepsi and put 2 fingers up. After he gave me my Pepsi's I stood at the bar and a meter away on the TV was the program Friends, in English, which he was watching and laughing at. :sneaky:

Originally Posted by steveq (Post 11265585)

I once worked out how to ask for a room for two in Holland once. 'Heft U ein kemer fur dweren persones ?' and the reply, 'Certainly Sir, would that be smoking, or not? '

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl (Post 11265590)

Unfortunately that is typical of many of the French. They are like it in Quebec too...refuse to speak English.

Originally Posted by steveq (Post 11265585)

I once worked out how to ask for a room for two in Holland once. 'Heft U ein kemer fur dweren persones ?' and the reply, 'Certainly Sir, would that be smoking, or not? '

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl (Post 11265590)

Unfortunately that is typical of many of the French. They are like it in Quebec too...refuse to speak English.

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl (Post 11265590)

Unfortunately that is typical of many of the French. They are like it in Quebec too...refuse to speak English.