Gentleman at ticket counter in train station said "non" to big smile and attempted "parlez vous anglais" this was my only serious problem, but made for very nervous train trip, given I had to buy the tickets in French. Wasn't sure where I was going or if I would be getting back. <BR><BR>One other instance, I had a long conversation in English with a girl who initially responed "non" to the question. She later said that French are very proud of speaking well and are embarassed that their English is not perfect. However, after listening to me butcher French for about 30 seconds, she relented. So try to learn enough to talk them into submission!

My wife still tells everyone the story of me helping a German lady with direction in Prague with neither one of us speaking each others language. Somehow with smiles, pointing, and hand waving I think I got her to where she need to go. I have never had a problem. We do try to learn the greeting and good byes in the native language and smile and laugh alot.

Hi<BR><BR>I speak english and french.<BR><BR>I have enough Swedish, German, Spanish, to order a drink ..... say hello thank you etc.<BR><BR>My most difficult countries were -<BR><BR>Indonesia (Local dialect, then Bahasi Indonesia, then Dutch, then English) In the country areas no-one speaks English<BR><BR>Hungary (Hungarian, then Russian)I had to hire an interpretor. This was early 90's.<BR><BR>Other places I have visited with little English are districts away from tourist areas (or US military presence) in -<BR><BR>France<BR>Germany<BR>Austria<BR>Italy<BR>S pain<BR>Korea<BR>Taiwan<BR>Thailand<BR><BR>Peter<B R><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>Generally I survive !<BR><BR>Peter<BR><BR><BR>

Hi<BR><BR>Americans who say all Europeans speak English, have never been too far off the US tourist trail.<BR><BR>I promise you there are places in Scandinavia, Holland and Flemish Belgium where you can struggle. And these are all supposed to be English friendly.<BR><BR>The larger countries - Italy, Germany, France, Spain are even more difficult away from the tourist trail.<BR><BR>Eastern Europe can be tricky too.<BR><BR>Remember -<BR><BR>Scandinavians learnt German as the official 2nd language before the war<BR><BR>Franco banned teaching of Anglo saxon languages <BR><BR>Most East Europeans had to learn Russian.<BR><BR>So older people are less likely to understand.<BR><BR>As an example -<BR><BR>One night, in an hotel in Ibiza, the following Euro's were talking -<BR><BR>Italian lady from German speaking area - spoke German, but little Italian<BR><BR>Her boyfriend - spoke Italian & French but little German<BR><BR>My wife - speaks Spanish, Swedish, French and English<BR><BR>Me - speaking French and English<BR><BR>My questions to the Italian lady took a long time to get replies !<BR><BR>Peter<BR>

<BR>I am fairly fluent in Spanish and can speak a little bit of German, French, Italian and Portuguese and am fairly conversant in British. I try to learn as much as I can when I travel and prepare for the events when I cannot rely on English or American.<BR><BR>Last week I was in a two level Hypermarket in a town outside of Dueselldorf looking for talculm (baby) powder, and all I could think of initially was "Wo ist die baby powder" everyone seemed to know baby but no one knew powder. Finally, some very nice people found someone who spoke English and he led me to the shelf; but all of the "puder" had been sold! <BR><BR>Then I picked up a six pack of water bottles but could not find the cashier (it was very big store -- a Real); and could not remember the name for cashier (kasse, right?), so after a few embarrassing encounters where I received blank stares I went up to someone, held up the water and a 10 euro note and said "Wo?" and was directed to the kasse. <BR><BR>When I got there the line was too long to wait, as I had a business appointment and had lost a lot of time looking for the puder, so I just put down the water and left.<BR><BR>Auf wiedersehn.

<BR>Ok, here is one more:<BR><BR>Also, last week, in Amsterdam, where I had become accustomed to the trains, I had an experience where I did not need the language, but knew more than I appeared to know.<BR><BR>Hub?<BR><BR>As we approached the A'dam Central station one day, I was moving towards the door of the train because I knew this was the next stop. There were a group of teenagers near the door coming down the steps from the upper seats, and one of them said something to me in Dutch.<BR><BR>I replied by apologizing for not understanding Dutch and asked if she could repeat it in English. She turned away and mumbled in clear teenspeak, "It doesn't matter anyway."<BR><BR>As the train stopped, she was blocking the door looking up and down the track, so I said "excuse me" and stepped off (ok, I actually said 'pardon' which I now know means horse, but she understood).<BR><BR>Just before the train pulled out, she and her friends jumped off the train. <BR><BR>I realized then that she had asked me if this was the Central station coming up but assumed that since I didn't speak Dutch that I must not know where I was. <BR><BR>When she saw me get off the train and head right down the stairs, she must have realized that I actually knew where I was going (or thought I knew).<BR><BR>I am sure many teens in my own country would have made a similar false assumption. <BR><BR>Lesson 1 - never assume.<BR><BR>Lesson 2 - when travelling by train on an unfamiliar route, I usually ask someone to confirm the train or stop -- even in my own country because it gets very confusing and like the poster way above I find its dangerous when you think you know what are doing --- like the time I took the train to Frankfurt thinking it went to the Frankfurt airport! <BR><BR>Danku<BR><BR><BR>

One place where you need only English is Grindelwald, Switzerland. I was so anxious before our trip to CH because I spoke no German. We arrived in Zurich (and this is a city where knowing German is helpful) and made our way to Lugano,which we loved but wished we knew some Italian. After our week-end in Lugano, we arrived in Grindelwald for a week and it seemed as if everyone there, and in Interlaken as well, spoke English.

Great stories on this thread. Here are mine:<BR>1) A little knowledge is dangerous #1 When in Heidelburg we got lost in the town center. Trying to orient myself to our map I look for the train station. Then I saw a street that said "Einbahnstrasse". I thought it meant railroad track street. So down it we went. Then we saw another "Einbahnstrasse" and another. We kept driving down them but were puzzled at all the honking and shouting coming at us. Hopelessly lost we ended up driving in the middle of the pedestrian only plaza. When all was sorted out, it seems "EiNbahnstrasse" is one-way street, while "EiSbahnstrasse" would be railway street. What a difference a letter makes.<BR>2) A little knowledge is dangerous #2<BR>When in France I learned to ask for carafe de eau when I just wanted a pitcher of water for the table. At one restaurant, I visited the "ladies" before I had a chance to request this from the waiter. When I returned, the waiter was totally mystified and trying not to guffaw at my very intelligent but language-deaf husband who was trying to order cafe de eau (coffee water.)<BR>3) Once I found myself sharing ferry cabin bunks with a Greek woman and her daughter and a young German woman.I knew a little German, the German knew a little Greek. So we managed to figure out how to share the bathroom and when to turn out the lights in an extraordinarily polite and stilted conversation.<BR>4) In Turkey, we were caught in a near-riot situation at the Istanbul airport and it was again my German which got us out of a tight fix - many Turks are "gastarbeiters" or guest workers in Germany.<BR>5)Last year when revisiting Greece we listened as the Spanish tourists at one table, and the French tourists at another table, and the Italian tourists at another table all ordered their dinners in English from the Greek waiter in the Athens restaurant.

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I find it essential to learn a few basic phrases before arriving in a country. For example:<BR><BR>- "Where is ...." or "Can you tell me where is ..... ?" (Even when I do not understand the response, I can see the direction to which the person is pointing.)<BR><BR>- the words for street, train station, subway, toilet (to append to the "where is ..." question)<BR><BR>- politeness words, e.g. thank you, please, excuse me<BR><BR>- I do not understand. Do you speak English?<BR><BR>It takes only an hour to memorize these few phrases, and they are indipensable. <BR>

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<BR>Interesting and useful thread. I'm surprised I haven't noticed it before since it has been around for 1 1/2 years.<BR><BR>The multi-lingual champions of Europe are the Benelux citizens.<BR><BR>In my experience, the French are almost as mono-lingual as Americans. The few that speak English typically have very poor pronounciation. I believe the often repeated story that the French are perfectly capable of speaking English, but refuse to out of pride, is a tourism myth. I do like to travel in France. Fortunately, French is one of two languages I studied for several years in school.

I have mixed experiences with France. I have a fair grasp of French, and when I went to Paris for the first time I wanted to try it out. However, every time I tried to make myself understood, the waiter/shopkeeper/etc. would answer me in perfect English. This made me wonder if my French was flawed, but a later conversation with French speaking relative of my boyfriend convinced me that this was not the case.<BR><BR>On the other hand, I sometimes came across people who did not understand even a word of English, yet had jobs where a basic english vocabulary should have been a requirement. For example, one woman in an airport kiosk (!) was unable to understand an american who was trying to buy a phonecard. I ended up having to translate for her, and even then she looked almost frightened, as if the idea of a forreign language in an airport was horrible and confusing.

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Hello Im fluent in 6 languages going on #7, the only languages you really need to know are<BR><BR>#1 German spoken in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Czech rep.<BR><BR>#2 French spoken in France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium.<BR><BR>#3 Spanish any Latin based language can be understood<BR><BR>#4 English spoken everywhere <BR><BR> Now if only I knew that these were the top languages to study I could have saved a lot of time.<BR><BR>Rolo good luck

To author:mpprh<BR>I must write this. You see "mpprh" ALL scandinaviens don´t learn german as an official 2nd language. We swedish talking Finns in Finland have to learn finnish as a second language and then from 4th year in school we start learning english. German we can study if we like.<BR>But almost everyone here, at least those who work in public places, speak english. And if they don´t..........they wont be working there for long.....<BR>Sorry for my spelling.........I speak better than I write! ;-)

11 years ago on my honeymoon, my husband and I were in Quebec City. We were amazed at the number of places were only French was spoken. We walked into a little deli in France to get some wonderful croissants, meat, and cheese for lunch. My husband wanted mayonaise for his sandwich, but the shopkeeper didn't have a clue what we were saying. We tried mayonaise, mayo, hellmans, etc. with no success. Finally, a guy behind us says to the shopkeeper with a very french accent "Le May-o-naise". The lights came on for everyone, and we got our mayonaise. What a difference a few vowels can make. <BR>Oh yeah, I was suprised at how fluent in English everyone was in Amsterdam. We were there for almost a week, without ever having to use our dictionary. We started every conversation with Halo, and we were fine.

I hope that the people of Spain do not speak much English because I was really hoping to use my Spanish and improve in it! That is one of the main reasons that I am spending a month there. Can anyone tell me how many people in Spain speak English? Also, about the France and rude people issue, I am sorry to say but I had MANY rude occurences with the French. Many of them were intolerant of my broken French and utterly rude.

In Prague you will be fine with English and most Czechs under 25 speak English since they have to learn it in school. The smaller town you go and the older the person you talk to the less likely you are to find someone who speaks english. Buy a phrasebook and you'll be fine