Eurosceptic Brits

[old.Osy]

So Job, see where you did wrong? The immigrants learned english, they're now hogging your jobs. (no pun intended)

Maybe if you learnt some other language, you could do the same to their country.

 

[Job]

I'm not a nationalist and am not stupid enough to realize that everyone put in blood sweat and tears to make the modern world.
I travel all over Europe and always make an effort to talk to people who can cope with my lack of local language skills, but it does piss me off when they complain I'm to lazy to learn.
Anyone non English native speaker only has to learn ONE language, a language that is everywhere, whereas am I supposed to learn 10% of every language in Europe?

Yes it is tongue in cheek but there is a definite truth to this caricture of British opinion of the continentals.

1: Germans..don't trust them
2: French..think they're having us off.
3: Spanish..possibly think they are taking to much from the pot, but think we probably would to.
4utch..our best mates
5:Scandinavians, seen as a better version of ourselves, every time some service or process turns to shit the papers always quote how much better the Danes/Norwegians/Swedes..etc do it better.
6:Hungarians/Poles/Bulgarians/Slovaks..etc..bit wary they are going to start
some kind of revolution in black and white.

You'd have to live in the UK to appreciate how little we mix with continental Europe, a singing dog in Utah gets as much news time as a national strike in France.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Well could you learn ONE language then? How about spanish? That's a handy one and rather wide spread. Or maybe french, since you are neighbours more or less. I doubt it would go down well with the brits.

It's not about learning the whole language, but a basic english to language x book and some effort is appreciated.

If you waltz in and expect people to talk ye old english 'cause, well, you're english! then you'll get people telling you to sod off.

 

[Job]

So Job, see where you did wrong? The immigrants learned english, they're now hogging your jobs. (no pun intended)

Maybe if you learnt some other language, you could do the same to their country.

Are you really from Bucharest?
Went here when the dictator was still in power, they had just put a 6pm curfew on everyone the day we arrived .
I've no problem with immigration, people who fear it are just not thinking this out.
The western culture will always win and every Immigrant is another one in the club, two generations down the line Islam will go the way of Christianity and if taking their children ,getting them pissed and feeding them Xfactor is what it takes..then I'm up for it!

 

[Ormorof]

learning another language helps you realise how odd your own language is, it also improves your abilitiy to improve in your native language!

though not mixing with continentals might actually make you more tolerant, i work with people from all over europe and my opinions of their stereotypes are stronger than ever!

 

[Zede]

be glad its not german

 

[Raven]

What's the point in speaking Spanish though? The best second language to learn is Mandarin I imagine.

 

[GReaper]

Well could you learn ONE language then? How about spanish? That's a handy one and rather wide spread. Or maybe french, since you are neighbours more or less. I doubt it would go down well with the brits.

It's not about learning the whole language, but a basic english to language x book and some effort is appreciated.

If you waltz in and expect people to talk ye old english 'cause, well, you're english! then you'll get people telling you to sod off.

Learning a foreign language is only going to be useful if you regularly use it. If you don't use it you're highly unlikely to remember enough of the language to be able to hold a conversation with someone. Lack of practice and enthusiasm makes the entire thing waste of time in my opinion.

I didn't get a choice in foreign languages to learn at school, I was stuck with Spanish. Am I ever going to really use it? Probably not. There are other countries and languages which I'd find far more interesting if I really did want to learn something else.

To you it's obvious what you're going to learn. You're going to need to understand English as it's the most common second language, you'll need it to use the Internet etc. You've got an obvious use for specific languages, we haven't.

 

[old.Tohtori]

I was pointing out that it's only one language like job said.

I chose to learn english well, and i choose to learn a bit of the language beforehand if i visit a country.

It's just considerate to not expect everyone to speak english and not to take granted that your language is widespread.