Path: ...!feeds.phibee-telecom.net!2.eu.feeder.erje.net!3.eu.feeder.erje.net!feeder.erje.net!weretis.net!feeder8.news.weretis.net!news.szaf.org!inka.de!mips.inka.de!.POSTED.localhost!not-for-mail From: Christian Weisgerber Newsgroups: sci.lang,alt.usage.english Subject: Re: French proverb : =?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=9CA?= man who knows two languages is worth two =?UTF-8?Q?men=2E=E2=80=9D?= --- is this really a French proverb ? Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2024 21:19:29 -0000 (UTC) Message-ID: References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2024 21:19:29 -0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: lorvorc.mips.inka.de; posting-host="localhost:::1"; logging-data="44647"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@mips.inka.de" User-Agent: slrn/1.0.3 (FreeBSD) Bytes: 2286 Lines: 28 On 2024-06-08, Peter Moylan wrote: > At various times I have been in places where my command of the local > language was somewhere between zero and negligible. That must happen to > anyone who has done a bit of travelling. How does one deal with this? Personally, I bulldoze through in English. That has worked quite well, but, English-majority countries aside, my travel has admittedly been limited to major cities and locations of tourism and higher education. I would expect poor results when, say, backpacking through the Andes. > My own approach is meek. I avoid saying anything at all. Where that is > not possible, I'll at least make sure to work out how to say "Do you > speak English or French?" in the local language, You can shortcut that by simply speaking English (or French) right away. > (Special case: I have worked out how to say "I don't speak X" for > a number of different values of X.) I once replied "no hablo español" when addressed in Spanish in the street in Miami, but it's pragmatically weird, since it seems to be a self-contradictory statement. Also, if you don't speak the language, your utterance may well come out unintelligible. -- Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de