British Complaining!

Johnnytwostep

Bollotom wrote: »

I speak five languages but not Spanish. Any smart-!!!!! want to tell me I should learn Spanish. If I go on holiday to Spain, I expect tourist service people to at least have a smattering of English. Aqua 111 must be a disgruntled Spanish waiter who didn't get a tip. On the other hand he/she made me smile so not all bad. Que? :cool:

Woop-de-do on your 5 languages, who doesn't speak more than one.

You should learn spanish and not expect spanish people to speak your language.

preable

hola que tal no hablo ingles

ThumbRemote

Are the hotel specifically marketing themselves as a holiday hotel for overseas guests? If so then it's hardly unreasonable to expect the staff are able to communicate with them.

ThemeOne

I agree that English is the world's second language, but I still think it's nice to learn a few basic phrases or words out of common politeness when going to a non-English speaking country.

Bollotom

Johnnytwostep wrote: »

Woop-de-do on your 5 languages, who doesn't speak more than one.

You should learn spanish and not expect spanish people to speak your language.

Giving you a thanks on that J2S, based purely on the fact you made me smile at your total lack of elan. :T

trukdiver

aqua111 wrote: »

I am on Holiday in a lovely Hotel where the Staff are eager to help with any queries.
I cannot believe how many British people are complaining when the Spanish people do not always understand every word they utter.
How many of us can speak a second language?

My mother was Spanish and my grandmother couldn't speak any English so I had to learn Spanish (it was my "mother tongue"). I was bilingual when I was four but that was soon knocked out of me at school! Spanish wasn't a "respectable" language like French or German. It was only for speaking to waiters and cleaners, so wasn't worth learning... I forgot most of it and can only speak English now!

aqua111

No I

Bollotom wrote: »

I speak five languages but not Spanish. Any smart-!!!!! want to tell me I should learn Spanish. If I go on holiday to Spain, I expect tourist service people to at least have a smattering of English. Aqua 111 must be a disgruntled Spanish waiter who didn't get a tip. On the other hand he/she made me smile so not all bad. Que? :cool:

No not a waiter or waitress just a tourist.
The Staff speak excellent English but do not always understand the various accents and neither do I.

Elsewhere

trukdiver wrote: »

My mother was Spanish and my grandmother couldn't speak any English so I had to learn Spanish (it was my "mother tongue"). I was bilingual when I was four but that was soon knocked out of me at school! Spanish wasn't a "respectable" language like French or German. It was only for speaking to waiters and cleaners, so wasn't worth learning... I forgot most of it and can only speak English now!

That's odd. We all did French at school but both German and Spanish were available as extra options (1960s)

bod1467

I have O Levels in both French and German ... but they were 30+ years ago so I've forgotten most of them bar rudimentary phrases. (That said I do still remember the basic language constructs, which are very different to English - especially German).

trukdiver

Elsewhere wrote: »

That's odd. We all did French at school but both German and Spanish were available as extra options (1960s)

This was 1960's/70's grammar school. I was good at Latin but we didn't have a choice of modern languages. I know other schools did German, but we didn't have that option. I didn't come across anywhere doing Spanish! One of the French teachers was actually Spanish, so there was no excuse! I was never any good at French (grade B O level) but I can still read it which can be useful on holiday. Not being able to do Spanish still annoys me!