Back in good ole Deutschland, the locals occasionally saw fit to speak English with me. This was not surprising, because for the first few years I was there, my German sounded much more like something you would expect to hear out of the
Swedish chef on the Muppets. I was grateful that these folks had made the effort to learn English and use it with me. In these cases, I made it my habit to thank them at the end of the conversation for having spoken English with me. Yes, yes, I know it wasn't necessary – the privilege of speaking with me is its own reward. Still though, I was trying to be gracious. It's part of the package.
Anyway, so here I am tooling around Lebanon, and not speaking a whole lot of Arabic. The thing I'm wondering about is the advisability of thanking people for speaking English with me. Technically, English is one of the official languages here, so is it really something I should thank someone for? Pretty much everyone here speaks English as a second or third language, so I've come up with a ground rule:
If the person has to try hard to speak English, thank them. If they can speak English better than George Bush, let it slide.
Thus far its working pretty well.
9 comments:
Thanks for the early morning chuckle! I think that's a great rule of thumb. :)
I guess it would be rude to thank southerners for speaking English with me?
I think it would depend Terra on if they are actually speaking "English" or not. I've heard plenty of southerners that I don't know what was coming out of their mouths - but it wasn't any version of English I had ever heard......
-GR
Well something I have noticed, even if you make the effort to speak arabic, the other person will constantly switch back to english, no matter how hard it is for him. Actually the worse his english, the more likely he is to speak english to you.
I'm lebanese but I am often mistaken for an outsider because of my looks and my less then parfect arabic.
I am not sure if they do that to practice their english or to show of the little english that they know.
Anyway they should be the ones thanking you for giving them an opportunity to practice english. Think about it!
That sounds like a good compromise. By all accounts it almost looks like a foreigner should thank people for speaking Lebanese to him. I don't know if you noticed, but it's impossible to get practice in the local tongue if you look foreign.
Terra's comment reminded me of a scene in Blazing Saddles. The part where they town is having a meeting and the moutaineer gets up to speak and you cant understand a word he is saying. At the end of his speech the mayor gets up and thanks him for his words and then comments how gratful he is the the childeren in the room just got to here authentic gibberish.
When I was living in Zurich and trying to get acclimated not just to German but to the local variances, I was so fortunate to have a cadre of friends who patiently enjoyed my Pidgin-Deutsch and helped me learn how to really "speak." I miss that...it was actually a lot of fun. As Bush might say, is your children learning Lebanonian?
well...I think I agree with Joumana Medlej...people should be gald the get to practise english because someties for the one who has to listen it is a test for their patience. In Russia I used to say....its not your native tongue its not my native tongue if you want to speak german feel free, otherwise let's stick with russian...I do agree with you Matthew that it is good to thank peolpe for making an effort to halep you understand everything. SO you don'tz have to necesarily thank them for speaking english thank them for the effort to comiunicate...
Karin
PS sorry for alll the spelling mistakes I am not quite awake after a not so refreshing night...
A hypothetical question it may be, but what if you're speaking to Bush himself?
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