Being spoken to in your native language

[Thespian]

For me, after I hear someone speaking in my national language, I usually say
"Oh, that's an interesting language, is it slavik or perhaps germanic? What a curious dialect."
"That's Irish, your country's national language."
"..."

I'm a bad leprechaun.

(Also, I have no right replying sine Irish is my official language, not my primary one >_> <_<)

 

[Haukur Isleifsson]

I love it. Seeing as less than half a million people speak my language I find it fantastic to hear people trying to speak it. And I help whenever I am able.

But you should be careful with this. On the one hand you don't want to simply assume that the person speaks a language because of the way they look. But asking can hardly hurt. On the other hand if you speak to someone in they're native language they often think you know much more than you actually do and start speaking that language exclusively. I have run into this problem with Danes a lot. As I have learned Danish in both primary and secondary school I sometimes tried to speak it to Danes when I was in Denmark.
Then there faces light up with such joy as they sputter an avalanche of nonsensical gibberish. And I nod and wait for a chance to clarify that I do indeed not speak more than few simple phrases.

 

[Sodoff]

I´d love it if someone walked up to me and tried speaking Danish, but that never happens People think its like speaking with rocks in their mouthes.

 

[370999]

You're not allowed to speak your native language in my countrys schools, except when your learning English.

If someone were to talk to me in Irish, I would just reply in English.

What, could you explain that please? You are Irish so are you from the gaeltacht? Like I'm Irish and the vast, vast majority of communication from my school days was done in english. Like History, R.E, Geography, etc were all taught threw the medium of English.

 

[Vegosiux]

Does anyone here, whose primary language isn't English, ever feel offended, or annoyed, when an English speaking person attempts to speak to you using your native language?

Not as such, but I do tend to tell them "English please, I prefer English over Slovene."

Really, I have no special feelings for my native language and English is simply more practical.

 

[Bvenged]

I'm going to answer this on from the other side of the table. I've lived and been to many foreign countries and I speak pigeon of many languages... I spoke pigeon Turkish at a kebab shop and got a discount. I spoke pigeon Greek in Cyprus and made a few connections there. There is no harm in speaking another language, it's an attempt to be mindful and polite. It's nice to speak someone else's language because it shows you are culturally aware. I see it equal to someone foreign coming to an English speaking country and trying to speak English; them putting in the effort is courtesy.

 

[Scarblade]

I would never get offended at anyone trying to speak danish to me, I would get a tiny bit offended if someone thought I was from some other country and tried to speak that language to me. I also get offended when germans presume I know german and try to speak to me in german instead of english or danish, english is okay, because it's kind of universal.

 

[I-Protest-I]

no-one has tried to speak german to/with me (as the pretty much only commonly known words are sauerkraut, kindergarten, über, und gesundheit), so i cannot say, but why would i?

i think it's far more offensive when people switch to something different than english and (try to) insult you in their own-but-not-your language. happens quite often with french, at least in LoL; then again, MOBA "communities" are per definitionem a conglomerate of first-class [censored], so i guess that doesn't mean much

although it's quite interesting to tell them, after a couple of minutes, in french that you actually do understand them. maybe insult them in turn, just to prove you can (if you're in the mood), and just for fun

Try working with Indian and Pakistani people whose idea of a joke is something in an entirely different language and laughing between themselves after knowing I'd be fired for racism if I said anything back relating to it being extremely rude.

 

[Gatx]

This has been something I'v wondered about for quite a while now.

Does anyone here, whose primary language isn't English, ever feel offended, or annoyed, when an English speaking person attempts to speak to you using your native language?

on another note, has someone ever spoken to you in a language that you didn't fully know, thinking that you were of a race or ethnicity that would know it? If so, did this ever offend or annoy you?

The reason why I ask is because sometimes, when operating amongst other people socially, I get this urge to say something to them in a language I think they know.

I get terribly offended, especially when it's apparent that they only know a couple of phrases. English is my primary language though, so that's partially why, like they don't expect me to know English because I'm not white.

Once at a bus stop, this guy guy shouted a bunch of random Scandinavian syllables at some passing Europeans, and then he turned to me and said "hello" in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese, and I just could not believe it.

 

[370999]

You're not allowed to speak your native language in my countrys schools, except when your learning English.

If someone were to talk to me in Irish, I would just reply in English.

What, could you explain that please? You are Irish so are you from the gaeltacht? Like I'm Irish and the vast, vast majority of communication from my school days was done in english. Like History, R.E, Geography, etc were all taught threw the medium of English.

Opps, sorry . The big schools where I live atm are Gaelscoils. The schools I went to were Gaelscoils.

Ah, okay, I was just really confused for a second.

 

[Smertnik]

Although I don't find it offensive (which would be silly) I'd much rather have people who don't speak my language(s) properly converse in English than with a horrible broken accent.

 

[The White Hunter]

Well I'm british so my two cents are worth about two cents... but when I was last in Switzerland, specifically Geneva, everybody seemed to appreciate you trying to speak french at least, though occasionally I did get lost with my rather small vocabulary in french and have to ask "parlez vous anglais?" followed swiftly by "thank fuck for that" because everybody in Geneva speaks English apparently.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Depends.

If you just want to practise your Spanish on an unsuspecting clerk, I think you should try to build up some sort of deeper customer-sales personnel relationship first.

I do it every now and then, but only as a last resort of sorts... say, if our lingua franca of choice doesn't quite get me that Durian fruit, or they keep trying to load off their stale stinky cheese on stupid whitebread. It's all fair game and I don't take it personal, but I can confirm that speaking the targets language does usually result in better service. Not always, though.

It can also be perceived as you being all imperialist gringo, talking down to the already downtrodden. It all depends on how you go at it.

I think that necessity is the mother of changing language.

You don't do it for fun with people you don't know properly. Besides, if English is the language spoken where you live, I think everyone should adapt to speaking that one language. Switching language for your practice means the other person gets cheated of their much-needed practice of speaking English.

But that's just my stance, and I have to admit that even I don't properly stick to it, because I'd rather make myself a fool in some other language than letting them suck up hours, days or weeks to put together that one jumbled sentence that, in the end, doesn't make any proper sense whatsoever. Impatience is a virtue.

 

[The White Hunter]

Although I must say I do get kinda irked when I have to work with polish migrants (notracist) when they've been here for 4 years and don't speak a single word of english.

That get's under my skin. If I were to go to a country for more than a few weeks I'd take the time to be able to communicate effectively with the natives.

 

[ZehMadScientist]

Offended? Nooo, far from it. Apparently Dutch is a hard language to learn, and the occasional person tries to speak the few words they know of it for shits and giggles. Shits for them and giggles for me usually, their pronouncuation is mostly terribad ;D.

And yes, people talk to me in Arabic, Punjabi, Surinam and few other languages on occasion. My father is a Dutchman, and me mother is from Surinam, resulting in me seemingly looking like everything.

In any case, no, if you know some Dutch and are feeling trigger happy, I've got no problems with a little chat.

 

[GLo Jones]

It's never right to assume, regardless of how they sound/look. There's nothing wrong with asking first, they might appreciate it.

Of course, I guess it all depends where you are. While I was in Korea, a staggering amount of people there simply assumed I spoke English (and was American), just because I'm white. I can imagine how frustrating that could get if I didn't.

 

[DoPo]

I get terribly offended, especially when it's apparent that they only know a couple of phrases.

Yeah, that can be annoying. That's why I usually answer in English to clarify because most of the times people know just how to say "Hello"/"How are you" or something like that, so engaging them in a conversation in a different language is impossible.

like they don't expect me to know English because I'm not white.

And an illustration of what I mentioned above: why some people may not like being talked in not-English. I knew a guy who had lived UK since he was 6-ish, but wasn't originally from there. And people still just assumed he was foreign (and hence had bad understanding of English) because of his slight accent.

 

[Something Amyss]

In my experience, people actually appreciate the intent more than get offended.

But that is just my experience.

 

[Sonicron]

Nah, I'm not offended. In fact, in most cases hilarity ensues - watching English folk fumble about with a few snippets of German is quite entertaining!

 

[BlackStar42]

Kind of apprehensive now...I learned German in school, but I never was much good at it. If I ever did end up in Germany for whatever reason, should I stick to English or try to speak (slightly crappy and definitely not fluent) German? Is it the thought that counts?