Why do people from the UK generally only speak English?

diver

diver

Well-Known Member
Missus and I had three nights away in Madrid last week with the girls. We had a great time but could not help but notice how difficult it was to converse in a lot of the bars, shops and restaurants. Those who could speak English spoke it really well, but there were those who quite rightly only spoke Spanish.

It was a little embarrassing for us sometimes and I could tell that some of the locals were not happy to assist, making it very difficult for us. One bar in particular, the waiter was a complete arsepiece. Its made me think that I would like to learn Spanish to avoid such situations.

I have a basic understanding of French but last year in Berlin, my daughter tried to use some German, only to be replied to in English.

Speaking English doesn't often cause a problem in Ibiza

In general, its quite rare that I meet an English person that can speak another language fluently. On the other hand, English is often spoken and written by other Europeans very well (eg @stivi )

Has anyone else noticed this or experienced the embarrassing scenarios that I had in Madrid last week?

(hope i've made sense?)
 
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Yeah, was in Madrid last year. Fortunately I had a good Spanish speaker accompanying me at most times, but when I was left on my tod, I struggled.
 
I told the barman in the Sunset terrace last year that i wanted to order my drinks in Spanish so i could practice but apparently what i was saying was far too long (something along the lines of "hello, may i bother you for 2 bottles of your finest beers please")...

Although he appreciated the fact that i was trying, he told me that it's normal just to say "dos cerveza" and leave out the rest...

Lucky for me, as a few hours later, i had forgotten what the rest was anyway... :lol:
 
hmmm I guess it's got something to do with the fact that the British grow up in a country in which the native language is at the same time also the most important one in the world. I think that's then also the reason why foreign languages maybe aren't as important in school compared to other countries. the incentive is just not as big as elsewhere I guess.

in a huge part of the world people learn english at school (because it is 'the most important language in the world'), no matter what their native language is. and because this has been like that for a while already, if you go travelling, in vast parts of the world, if people do speak a bit of english, they will automatically speak in english to you. this, in a normal case, then automatically makes you think 'great, no need to learn the language of the country I'm in'.

in my special case (being swiss), where in our country 4 different languages are spoken, the motivation is obviously much higher to learn them so you can communicate with everyone. in the UK you have various accents (and some of them are difficult to understand for foreigners!), but you don't necessarily need to learn another language to speak to all your citizens. so I grew up learning different languages as from the age of 10 and once you speak one other language apart from your native one, learning more languages gets easier every time. that's at least my experience.
 
It's interesting...I've found myself in a group with Spanish, German,Dutch and English people (and variations of that theme many times) and the conversation always continues in English, the common ground.
 
More motivation to learn English I guess and it's everywhere (music, tv etc). I've been learning German for a few years now but it's hard to keep up motivation for it with not being around german speakers every day.
 
Most other countries learn English from a really young age as its a universally spoken language. The people who are in charge of our (UK) education system are ignorant b*stards! I met a girl from Germany at destino last year who spoke 7 languages. Incredible.
 
A couple of schools I know of here in Northern Ireland have removed German from their curriculum in favour of Irish. Irish!
 
Because our past empire-building means everyone else speaks our language and because were an island?
 
I have been half-heartedly learning Spanish for about 5 years. Its still extremely basic, and I struggle sober, but put 3 or 4 strong Rum and Cokes in me and it starts pouring out. Probably incoherent babble in the main, but I always figure at least if you try, you'll either get a laugh or a helpful correction. I cringe when people not only don't even attempt to read the spanish on the menu for instance. Give it a blast, 99% of the time its appreciated. It doesn't take long to learn some basic phrases etc.

I think its embarassing how we treat foreign languages in this country.
 
I think its embarassing how we treat foreign languages in this country.
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I agree. It's much more than the language as well in my opinion. I get such a shudder seeing wave upon wave of union jacks and places dishing out full english breakfasts and roast dinners when I'm in Spain. It's no wonder we encounter the odd grumpy Spaniard even when we're giving it a real go with the language and culture.
 
I always feel like a bit of a dick when I stumble over basic Spanish when placing an order and get asked a question I don't understand and have to answer in English. Like I always hear that the effort is appreciate but then I think they've spent years learning and perfecting their English maybe they want to use it too?
 
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