While first granting that I am usually one of the persons who says you can get along fine in Europe by conversing in English and just a few local phrases, I have heard that the case is different in Spain. The item was not passed along by an American either, but some folks from Brussels who had encountered problems there, though they could speak French, German and English.

Please share your experiences on this topic or what you have gathered from other credible sources recently. Is the ignorance of Spanish only a problem in the rural areas and English sufficient in bigger cities such as Madrid and Barcelona?

My recollection is that fewer people in Spain could understand French or English. I had fewer problems in Italy.

My experience (based on one 2 week trip) is that in rural Spain it is best to assume that nobody speaks English. It is not literally true but assume it is and you will be better off. In Madrid we found more English speakers. People responded very well to my very limited Spanish.

We spent two weeks in NW Portugal and Galicia, ESP in July. Few/no Portugese speak Spanish and the Castillan/Celtic dialect of Galicia is nearly incomprehensible.
All spoke English, and I really got tired of hearing "do you speak English, Senor"?
M
M

i will say that in most of spain, the quality of the english spoken in many hotels is not very good. however you will occasionally come across someone with excellent english.

many restaurants have menus in english in large cities.
small towns.. don't count on anything but spanish, as mentioned previously, but with a phrase book and hands..you will probably be fine.

in the business world, the level of the back office is much worse, even in IT, than in other parts of europe.

i will blame most of this on the WAY english is taught here.. like many other subjects.. too theoretical, little conversation, not much practical use of language. most 35 yr.old spaniards have studied english for 10 years.. but you would never know it.
also, the mediterraneans have a more difficult time with the language than the germans, etc.
few movies on T.V. are in original version, unlike the nordic countries where a gas station attendant speaks english better than many nationals.

most of those who speak it very well in spain are in higher position jobs than what you will encounter as tourist.(however, hopefully it will make the trip more exciting!)
you will have a better chance of smeone knowing the language among the 15-30 yr. old age group.

in southern spain(costa del sol) it is a different story.

We traveled around Spain and Portugal and had no problems.This myth is nonsense.We have traveled to 21 countries speaking english only and have never had any problem

I speak no languages and travel all over Europe. I'd have a tough time saying any country is much more difficult than any other. I will say that generally the easiest with English only are the Scandinavian countries. But I really can't say I've any more difficulty in Spain than France or Italy. As anywhere, of course, you will find more English in the cities or tourist areas and less in the small towns, especially off the beaten tourist path.

mgmargate, according to your posts you stick to 5* hotels and presumably similar quality restaurants. So that is undoubtedly one significant reason why you have no problem with English only.

Although I have much less travel experience, I have run into at least one people who did not speak English well enough to communicate in every country I've been to (including the Scandinavian ones). But of course a few people per country is not a big deal at all, although it can be challenging at the moment if it is the bus driver.

We have had no problems with people speaking english in either large cities or tourist areas.

In fact, in several trips the only time I beleive we found no one who spoke english was in the parador in Ubeda - where we were having lunch. But it was apparently some sort of local feast day and the usual staff was off duty - the waiters had only Spanish - but - if you've been in the country a couple of daysby then I've found the high school Spanish comes right back - even tho its been 20+ years.

WT; I just want people to realise that there is nowhere they can't go just because they don't speak the language.That doesn't mean there won't sometimes be glitches but that's no big deal.

We were just in Spain the first half of June.

Barcelona had the most English.
Seville in the South had the least. We were also in Madrid and Granada.

The desk clerks in all four hotels spoke English reasonably well.

What surprised me most was how little English the younger sales clerks in large department stores spoke (el Corte Ingles).

I normally make sure I know a few words such as hello, good-bye, thank you, your welcome and could I please have the bill.

In most restaurants they spoke some English.

In all restaurants they either had an English menu or one in the major languages.

We were never uncomfortable due to lack of Spanish.

I was also in Toledo, Segovia and Cordoba and never really had a problem.

The bigest issue was trying to use a menu dictionary the first evening. The waiter saw us and brought an English menu. Kill-joy!!!