What jobs can you do without the language?

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  • Nebulous2
    Nebulous2 Posts: 5,115 Forumite
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    shortcrust wrote: »
    Ha! I’ve been cut off mid sentence in France a few times with a surly “please, speak English, it’s quicker”. Well they’re not so pleased when other countries sing in English at Eurovision (search for anglais eurovision on Twitter when it’s on:D).


    It very much depends where you are. I have basic schoolboy French, have holidayed widely in France and the only place I've ever had that is Paris.



    In rural areas many people do not speak English and even those who do will discretely transfer into English rather than the abrupt manner you describe.
  • flybynight
    flybynight Posts: 291 Forumite
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    I once noticed a lady in ypres had left her car door ajar as she walked off, being the helpful soul I am I tried to shout after her. I was pretty sure that ypres spoke both german and French as well as Flemish. thinking for a second I concluded my german was slightly better than my almost non existat French and shouted "Entschuldigung frauline ihre Auto ist offen und hat nicht gesperrt" to which she turned around and In a cut glass English accent went "I'm ever to sorry I don't speak a word of anything other than English" so I repeated in English. my oppos found it absolutely hilarious of course and spent the next three days mocking my language attempts. but I do think in general people respond well to a tryer, even if you aint great.
    saving for more holidays
  • Smodlet
    Smodlet Posts: 6,976 Forumite
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    flybynight wrote: »
    I once noticed a lady in ypres had left her car door ajar as she walked off, being the helpful soul I am I tried to shout after her. I was pretty sure that ypres spoke both german and French as well as Flemish. thinking for a second I concluded my german was slightly better than my almost non existat French and shouted "Entschuldigung frauline ihre Auto ist offen und hat nicht gesperrt" to which she turned around and In a cut glass English accent went "I'm ever to sorry I don't speak a word of anything other than English" so I repeated in English. my oppos found it absolutely hilarious of course and spent the next three days mocking my language attempts. but I do think in general people respond well to a tryer, even if you aint great.

    I don't suppose anyone had the presence of mind to film it, did they? :D
  • robatwork
    robatwork Posts: 7,089 Forumite
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    Deep_In_Debt wrote: »
    One of the houses in my road was rented for a year to Polish to spoke very little English to no English - they didn't mix with the locals and kept themselves to themselves. From what I understand they did various jobs whilst here - fruit picking, working at the airport as aircraft cleaners and cleaners in general, train cleaners and construction work.

    I have that here near me - a house full of Poles and also one of Pakistanis. Although the children of the house can speak English, the parents seem to have gone out of their way to not learn any. It beggars belief how many years the adults have been here and are unable to hold even a basic conversation or even say Hello how are you - they must deliberately never use English and avoid TV, radio etc. to be so insular. Or just rude.

    Of course in my scenario "I" can't rely on a network of English/Armenian speakers who can translate. "I" would need to learn Armenian as quickly as possible but for an old brain like mine I think it would take a couple of years at least to learn to converse, never mind write formally.
  • Smodlet
    Smodlet Posts: 6,976 Forumite
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    I think "you" might be doing yourself down, robatwork. I bet you learn new things every day. Do not most of us who like to keep our minds at least ticking over do so?

    I don't imagine it is at an easy language to learn; I am guessing it is a Slavic language and Russian does not even use the same alphabet as ours but learning first phonetically, then by rote how to speak a language if you are immersed in it can yield results reasonably quickly, I think. Learning to write eloquently will, of course, take longer.

    Good luck with your real or virtual linguistic adventure.

    ETA: A house full of poles should be confined to Soho, imho.
  • flybynight
    flybynight Posts: 291 Forumite
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    Smodlet wrote: »
    I don't suppose anyone had the presence of mind to film it, did they? :D
    nope luckily they were too busy pointing and laughing.
    what i have never understood is that i am the one with the least language skills , yet alwasy get sent to have a crack. (i once loudly announced to a lady in a full cafe "Excusez-moi Madame vous êtes une toilette", only for someone to point out id just called her a bog)
    saving for more holidays
  • Smodlet
    Smodlet Posts: 6,976 Forumite
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    I shudder to think what you meant to say, monsieur le WC (pron. vay say)
  • Masomnia
    Masomnia Posts: 19,506 Forumite
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    Quite a few people round our way seem to get by at work just by being able to say 'Freeeee Standard!'
    “I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.” - P.G. Wodehouse
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