On Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:19:55 GMT, in rec.travel.europe, "James Silverton"
arranged some electrons, so they looked like this:
... James wrote on Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:59:57 GMT:
...
... JS> "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
... JS> wrote in message news:fsm2p602b4f@news3.newsguy.com...
... ??>>
... ??>> Mike...... wrote:
... ??>>> Following up to "William Black"
... ??>>> wrote:
... ??>>>
... ??>>>> For example, try asking directions in German when lost
... ??>>>> in Holland or Belgium...
... ??>>>
... ??>>> lets face it, when you meet the taxi driver, policeman,
... ??>>> passer by and
... ??>>> need to say something, most of the time people speak one
... ??>>> language.
... ??>>
... ??>> True, but tourist areas in most countries have a fair
... ??>> share of "natives" who speak other languages than their
... ??>> own. In Brussels I encountered quite a few who WANTED to
... ??>> speak English with me, (Including the woman at the next
... ??>> table in a restaurant one noon - we chatted happily away
... ??>> in English, all through our meal, after I had admired the
... ??>> "petit chien" she had with her in a carrier, and she
... ??>> detected my American accent.)
...
... JS> It's an interesting topic: countries whose citizens make
... English
... JS> monoglots ashamed! My vote for the most likely place to
... JS> find English speakers is Holland.
...
... Before someone takes me up on it, I would like to say that
... places like the UK, US, Ireland etc. are hors de concourse, tho'
... Holland might beat some of them on percentages :-)
Hors concours.
=====
It sounds much better in French, but then, everything does. |