RE: Comedy Open Mic Round #39 - Fun & Games In Customer Service
Not really, it depends where you are.. if you look at Switzerland they have 4 languages and they tend to speak at least 2 of them. English would be the 3rd or maybe even the 4th language. My colleague is Polish and his child speaks Polish at home, German and French at school, so no English at all because they believe it would be too much at this age.
In Slovakia English becomes the 2nd language for the last years.. but when I was a child (right after the revolution) it was still German and Russian that we learned at school. So many of my friends (in their 30's) don't speak/barely speak English.
I agree with you that it is believed that English is the 2nd language in most of countries here but it is not necessarily the case..
EDIT: But people in the capital cities usually do speak English as the multinational companies are there..
Oh, I don't speak French so you can't practice with me :) BUT as long as you can get around in France with what you can say it's ok :)
And this is what I'm not that good at ;) And I like the diversity and that everyone is good at something else :) SO if I have a scientific question, you'll have me knocking on your door Nicky :D
Oh right, that's different to what people I've travelled with from the mainland say when I've been on tours but interesting to learn different cultures and backgrounds - I guess it's because a lot of the non-native UK people I know are in business/corporations so they need to speak English as second language. Thanks for educating me more on the matter :)
I knew Switzerland has it's own take on German and French, Luxembourg has multiple languages too, I have a friend from Estonia who speaks Estonian, Ukranian and Russian as well. Puts the Brits to shame haha.
That's OK, a music producer I met on the blockchain sites just flipped the switch mid conversation as she spoke to me in English then to French... my head... haha! Haven't flexed those muscles for a long time!
Yep, any scientific questions, give me a shout, will do my best to answer it but strengths are in material science specifically, a bit of human biology, plant biology, space science... ping them over haha
Do you British really call us 'the mainland'? :) That sounds so funny :)
People who work in corporations do speak English as it's mostly their company language. But if you go to smaller towns you may face some challenges with the languages.
I had a similar discussion with a friend from the UK. He was telling me that people there don't feel that they should learn another language as they believe everyone speaks English so there is no need to put some effort to it. I don't know if it's true and I'm not judging anyone :)
It's good to know! And thank you for naming the specific fields of your expertise ;) Don't worry, I won't bother you with anything outside of these fields :D
Haha yea, we call it mainland Europe as we're an island but we don't call ourselves islanders... weird country we are haha :)
Yea I have experienced small towns in France where you really do have to know the local language otherwise you are stuffed really!
You're spot on with that and when I went to France with an English person a long time ago, I was ashamed with what he was saying "I don't want to learn another language, everyone else should speak English" - it might be a general feeling but I appreciate that everyone has learned to speak the english language and I want to at least try and learn a few words.
Haha, I hope you have a checklist of things there to ask if those topics ever need to be asked :)