Comments on: English – German… just pick your language

By: Sjeltur

Sjeltur — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:04:37 +0000

I also think that it is polite to try to speak the language of the country you are visiting…
But I don’t think it is reasonable to believe or think that a BBC reporter is able to speak German while visiting a political (international) meeting… And I do think it is very rude the way the Minister of Foreign Affairs is acting…. – gives a good (??) example of how he thinks the Foreign Affairs should be handled.
On the other hand I can imagine why the Prime Minister is doing the speech in German; our (Dutch) Prince did visit Mexico last week and he did a speech in (Mexican) Spanish… and he made a mistake with the language and did use a “dirty sentence”….
So; probably it was way safer for the German prime-minister to do the speech in her own language.

But I really do think it is weird that; when I call (from Holland) a big German company => they just do expect to have the conversation in German…
Why not in Dutch..?? Well; I can imagine they didn’t learn Dutch at school… but why do they expect me to speak German..?? Why not THE international language English..??

By: Chinaren

Chinaren — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:32:57 +0000

As an expat I believe that when you are in other people’s countries, then it’s only polite to try and speak in their language.

Of course, if you are visiting etc, then you probably won’t be able to, but why should people expect Germans, or any other people, to speak English when they’re in their country and it’s not their native language?

Doing so is simply arrogant. I expect anyone in the US, UK or other English speaking place would object if asked to speak something else in their home country.

By: dhemz

dhemz — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:37:47 +0000

=== non related comment ===

came here to drop the EC….:)

btw, I would like to ask a favor if you could help us vote for my daughter…if you have time….your help is much appreciated….thanks!

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