Being a foreign language tourist

[Jiro]

Building off SuperMillionaire's bold claim that Spanish-speaking immigrants to a country with no official language but Spanish as its second most common language should assimilate to the language, I would like to commence a discussion on international tourism.

I am in 日本 and I am somewhat disturbed by how easy it is for an English-only person to navigate. Countless signs are written in both 日本語 and English, even in places that don't really need to be. While I am thoroughly grateful that a slight problem with locating my hotel did not result in death by exposure, thirst, or hunger, it does make me wonder why my native cities of Brisbane, Sydney, and even the multicultural-bonanza that is Melbourne are so much harder for any non-English speaker to navigate.

It's easy to base this on sheer numbers of fluent speakers or tourism levels (and let's try to avoid too much of Skull Face's hatred of English as a lingua franca) but Australia has minimal signage in any foreign language. The only languages represented are based on proximity and size (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) and typically only in airports or outside restaurants run by lingual-natives.

I remarked earlier today that this phenomenon is undoubtedly down to the gross length on time in which the United States has exerted influence over this little island nation. Coincidentally, I will be visiting 広島市 (Hiroshima) in a few days, and I am relatively certain that those events are a significant part of the cultural shift.

Next time I visit, I will speak enough 日本語 to get by. While it is not impossible currently, with such an uncanny level of support for English-speaking tourists, it seems far more polite to speak the local language and meet these lovely people half way.

Discuss travel experiences or being bigots / language snobs.

[Psychotic]

I've been to France and Italy over the past 12 months and spent a fair old bit of time refreshing my school knowledge of the languages in preparation. Whenever I tried speaking in those languages the hotel staff, waiters, whatever, all just started talking in English to me. I was in Paris and Rome so tourist central I guess.

[Freya]

South Texas I saw Spanish on signs instead of just English but it was still far and few in between. In San Francisco though, I saw far more signs with both English and Chinese.

At the Houston Airport they would announce things in Spanish and English. In SF it was English and Chinese.

So they do sometimes make it easy for tourists but it's usually at cities that are more closer hubs to whatever immigrants or tourists.

As for foreign countries, Germans were thoroughly excited when I tried to speak in my bad German when I was there. They were always happy to try to tone things down and speak more simply so I could understand. It was a great experience.

I had a similar experience in France as Psy though. I tried to say a few things in French but they just started talking in English instead of trying to deal with my bad French (Honestly really bad so I can't fault them.)

[Shauna]

I was in Paris and Rome so tourist central I guess.

When I was in Paris I avoided saying words where possible, and the one time I said "Bonjour" to someone they went off on a crazy French rant and I was left standing there nodding and smiling at them until she handed me my shopping.

I do try and speak the language where I can, though. No loud British shouty-tourist for me.

[Old Manus]

I'd imagine that the reason Japan would have signage in English would be that barely any non-Japanese/Chinese speaking people in the country would be able to understand the text, so if a translation is needed it may as well be in the most widely-used Roman script language. Elsewhere in the world I think signage is not that much different to Australia for monolingual nations.

And I'm surprised any of you have managed to get anything other than Français out of the French. I've never been to Paris though.

[Madame Adequate]

When I flew through CDG a couple years go, I actually managed to buy something from an airport cafe without needing English, which surprised me because I didn't think I remembered enough French to do it. When I went through one of the security checkpoints the bloke somehow immediately figured out I only knew English though, so he switched to that. In Amsterdam I don't think I even heard any Dutch, and most of the airport signs had English above Dutch and in a larger font.

Never actually been properly to a non-Anglo country though. tbqh if Johnny Foreigner is graced by my presence he can jolly well learn the Queen's English.

[Pike]

Well I've never been to a country that didn't speak English as a majority language because I'm a dirty Yank so I don't really have much to contribute to the thread.

But I will say that went I went to Newtownards in Northern Ireland people would give me weird looks the second I opened my mouth and started talking in my American accent. Not mean looks, everyone there was really nice, but I think it was just the shock of "why is some American in Ards and not literally anywhere else in the world." And I can't really blame them for thinking that ahaha. People didn't care so much in Belfast and in England (London, Leicester and Stratford at least) where I assume tourists are more of a thing.

[Ayen]

My first friend was a Spanish girl who grew up in my neighborhood, and she and her family could speak English just fine, and I never thought twice about them speaking in their native language. Though I always wondered what they were saying when I overheard them yelling at each other in Spanish.

I'm glad I'm not a language snob.

[Fox]

I went on holiday to Barcelona last year. When we landed at Barcelona airport, everything was written in at least two languages - Spanish and English. Sometimes more. There were signs everywhere: "Hola! Welcome to Barcelona!" "Enjoy your stay!" "We're so happy you chose to visit our beautiful city!" Everyone spoke English. Everyone recognised that I was an English tourist (probably because it was 40°C and I was wearing jeans) and approached me and spoke to me in English. Everyone at the hotel and the theme park spoke English, including all the other Spanish guests.

When I landed at Gatwick on the way back, everything was written only in English. There were signs everywhere: "Have your passports ready." "Border control may stop you at any time." "Do not wear head coverings". The security officers didn't speak at all, they simply looked at me suspiciously and waved their hand in a 'hand over your papers' kind of motion.

In short, I discovered that Britain as a place to visit is not just incredibly inconsiderate to people who don't speak English, but it's simply a horrible place to come as well.

[Old Manus]

You got all that from a dude at passport control?

[Loony BoB]

While in The Hague, I was surprised just how many signs were in English. I suppose it makes sense given that English is considered the go-to international language and there are so many foreign politicians that regularly visit The Hague, but it was just weird being in a foreign country of another language and being able to read and understand damned near everything without having any real knowledge of the language.

When we went to Leeuwarden it was considerably rarer to find signs in English, but there were still quite a few outside bars etc, and the menus in restaurants still had English alongside Dutch. The daily specials were in Dutch only, though.

It feels a lot more like you're traveling when you visit a place that doesn't cater to your language so much.

[Mr. Carnelian]

I was so thankful for signs being written in English whilst I was on my student exchange to Japan. I can sort of read Hiragana, but that's as far as my reading skills in Japanese extend.

I always try to use German when I go over to Switzerland, where my Dad lives (he lives in the German-speaking part). My German's passable, so I get by. However, the German I know is High German, whereas what they speak in Switzerland is 'Schwarze Deutsche', Swiss German. It's almost exactly the same, but there are a few small differences. So, even if they can't tell I'm English, they know that I'm not from around there.