In my experience, in general, in France to get along after French , English is better, same in Italy, English after Italian.<BR>It is also true that for instance in the North of Italy near Austria, ITalian and German are no 1 and2, .. It is very difficult to generalize .<BR>Some things are difficult to explain I have found out that Spanish speaking people understand fairly easy Italian but it doesn't work the other way around...

France and Spain live fairly independently of one another because each is big and they have different langauges.There are more telephone calls made between Ireland and the UK than between France and Spain.

Just an aside,<BR>I actually found German easier to learn than French (not that I know either well). It is very similar to English so I found that I could often guess what things meant and at least get close. English has encorporated many French and Spanish words as well.

Thanks all and especially Sue.

Pam, when I was in Paris in May, I took an organized trip to Mont St. Michel for the day - and the other 4 people who were along were all from South America.I speak some French, but no Spanish, and certainly wished I did that day! 2 of them STRUGGLED with English, to be nice to me. So you never know when your Spanish could come in handy. I live in a bilingual city, Miami, and vowed that day in France, to learn Spanish!

...and would someone like to expound on the expression "...il parle fran&ccedil;ais comme une vache espagnole..."<BR><BR>The French are purists about their language. In my experience they are likely to be insulted if an English speaker attempts communication in Spanish. After all, French is the superior language.

"Tongue in Cheek" you can put your tongue in another area...

Why so rude, flip?

Just figure it out

Pam, when we were in Cather country we found many who spoke Spanish, at that time my husband didn,t speak French. And in Provence we found a few also.<BR>Don't let the jibes get you down...keep making music!

Mimi,<BR>I am smiling from your post.

Main Entry: gibe <BR>Pronunciation: 'jIb<BR>Function: verb<BR>Inflected Form(s): gibed; gib·ing<BR>Etymology: perhaps from Middle French giber to shake, handle roughly<BR>Date: 1567<BR>intransitive senses : to utter taunting words.

Pam--I too am fluent in Spanish and not-so-fluent in French. I found when I was in Paris several years ago that asking the question "Parlez-vous anglais ou espagnol?" met with far more favorable responses than I would have expected. I would say that certainly more people seem to know English as a second language, but quite a few people did speak Spanish. Those who did not seemed to be encouraged by the fact that I did at least know one other language. It is difficult, however, to get over replying "Si" when you should be saying "Oui"! Buen viaje!

On an April trip to Paris I seemed to entertain the entire city by inadvertently replying to questions in Spanish. "Si." "Gracias." Calling people "Senor." <BR><BR>It's a tough habit to break...I think your brain automatically responds with "foreign in, foreign out" regardless of whether they match. I thought my husband was going to die of embarrassment. But it did seem to break the ice with some of the Parisians...maybe they forgave me my *extremely* limited knowledge of their language, because at least I knew *one* besides my own. Or maybe they just enjoyed watching me blush in humiliation. Whatever. I had a great time.

Pam, I often found myself speaking in Spanish automatically if the person didn't speak English. I usually got blank looks as I realized what I had done. I did not meet anyone who spoke Spanish while we were there but I sure garnered lots of smiles while I mixed that language up with my pitiful French!

I read somewhere (Safire?) that "parle francais comme une vache espagnole" was originally "comme une basque espagnole", which was nearly equally derogatory.

On a recent trip thru the French Riviera & down to Rome and not speaking much more than basic French or Italian, I found English to be understood more than Spanish in France but Spanish more than English in Italy.

Pam,<BR><BR> When I travel to another country and do not speak the local language, I always try to communicate in 1) English 2)Spanish 3) Turkish, or 4) Tagalog. My wife and I will be traveling to Paris for the first time Jul 23rd. She does speak some French, however I don't, so when not with her, I will need to use the approach above to communicate. It may not be successful but its the best I can do. I was in China last month and found myself in a situation where none of my languages worked (I can't seem to master the four tones of Mandarin) and I needed to buy some sun tan lotion. I ended up using my note pad to draw a picture of the sun (with rays) and a stick figure with arrows pointing from the sun to the figure. Yep, they understood and I got the lotion (SPF 25). If you keep trying and don't get frustrated because the other person doesn't speak your language, usually you will find a way to communicate. <BR><BR>I travel quite a bit and depend on Fodors, Frommers, and Lonely planet bulletin boards to give me some insight of future visits. Unfortunately, there are those who wish to engage in sparring. Good luck on your trip. <BR><BR>http://e3brown.home.attbi.com