I’l relate an amusing jest I was sharing with a native of Montreal when I went on vacation in the Dominican Republic.
I did a mini vacation in Montreal for three days, and in that time I had noticed that all the cab drivers in Montreal spoke not just english, but fluent english. The guy I was sharing this observation with, was openly cringing and stating to the obvious Ontario troll,(that would be me) that everyone spoke english in Montreal( this was spoken in a way that would not be too unlike straining on the toilet)
So I riposted with this
Try finding a cab driver in Toronto that spoke english, let alone fluent English
I’ll definitely vouch for that. In Almaty right now and even with a smattering of Russian (pretty much beginners level) things are pretty hard (outside of the city would be even harder). Some of the bigger restaurants might have an English menu and a waiter with some English (you might have some more luck finding English speakers at the major hotels) but in general we haven’t seen much English spoken at all. I think an increasing number of younger people might have a little English now though (some of the best English we’ve heard was a 13yr old girl we talked to on a long train ride). We spend a lot of time trying to get things across in a combination of broken Russian and wild hand gestures, and staring blankly looking like idiots if they respond too quickly or with too many words we can’t pick out. Luckily most people are fairly patient and helpful trying to understand your bad Russian, but trying to get by speaking English only would be incredibly hard.
And it’s made harder by the fact that everything’s in Cyrillic lettering, so even transliterations of English words can be hard to make out at first before you’re used to reading it. I still remember looking at a menu our first week here and slowly reading out “chiz…boor…goor…ummm…oh wait, ‘cheeseburger’!”
Then there’s the fact that some stuff will be in Russian and some will be in Kazakh…
We only spent a couple of days in Istanbul recently, but there seemed to be enough English spoken for a tourist to get by relatively easily, but I’d guess anything more substantial than tourist-level interactions would be difficult without knowing some of the language.
Whenever someone tells me that people were rude to them in Paris, or that they had trouble finding English speakers, I figure they must’ve been walking around with their dick on their shoulder. I don’t speak a word of French and I had a great time in Paris, and was universally treated wonderfully.
I think the French growing up hearing that Americans are fat and stupid + Americans growing up hearing that the French are rude and snobby = some really unnecessary tension.
You’re a guest in their country. Smile, say bonjour, don’t be a walking stereotype . . . you’ll have a great time. Prove to them you’re not stupid and they’ll go above and beyond in proving that they’re not rude.
Because it is rude to go to another country and demand they speak your language. Yes, English is the universal language, but if you’re visiting another country they are still doing you are favour by speaking yours. If at all possible I think it is polite to at least attempt to communicate in theirs.
Similarly, I would tell the OP’s friend that people not speaking English is not “a nightmare”, it’s called being in a different country. :rolleyes:
I think that’s the case in pretty much every non-English speaking country, except maybe for a few specific places where they have a very strong emphasis on teaching English, like the Scandinavian countries, and the Netherlands.
eta: I’ve had that experience in a few theoretically English-speaking countries, too, like the Philippines and India.
It’s difficult to quantify. If you stick to major tourist sites, English will probably get you through most of the world.
As far as South America, Buenos Aires and Santiago are pretty English friendly in my opinion, as long as you aren’t going too far off the beaten track. Hell, Buenos Aires even has a daily English newspaper.
Just chiming in to thank Cisco for this post. It is right on the money.
Okay, as for the OP…I was surprised at how little English is spoken or understood in Tokyo, given its status as a modern, huge, plugged-into-the-global-economy city. But a couple of you have pointed out that: 1. Japanese tend to learn WRITTEN English better than SPOKEN; and 2. just by its sheer density and size, you’re bound to find someone that speaks it in most situations (but that just reinforces my point that the per capita English comprehension is surprisingly low, all things considered.)
That is true of 99.99999% of people who learn ESL; carrying a small notebook with you as well as your travelogue is Good for two things: people can draw you a small map and, if their written English is good but their spoken English blows goats (very, very common, specially in dubbing countries), you can communicate in writing. A very strange thing about WoW players from Romania is that they are learning English from movies rather than in class, so they tend to have atrocious and extremely-creative spelling while being able to speak it quite well.
What was pointed out is that many Japanese learn (almost-)exclusively written English.
