Travelling...

I'll be in Paris briefly later this week and felt reminded of the language barrier in place when reading
English is a dialect with an army:

A family of Americans came in, enthralled and confused. They were marveling at the breads, at the spices, the wines, the champagnes and the prepared dishes behind the counter. At the same time it was not clear how the family was supposed to get service. Could they touch the breads? Could they reach in and grab a tart? The cases were open. What were the rituals here? The mother, a bit flummoxed walked over to a counter and said to a man working behind it. "DO YOU SPEAK ANY ENGLISH?"

I have talked to this man before. We always start in French and go to English if there's a problem. I know he speaks a little English. But he looked at this woman, shook his head, and went right back to work.

The woman was being very rude, and I don't fault the man's response. But you must understand the impulse. You are the cultural conqueror. You wield the biggest guns. Somewhere in your home there is button which could erase civilization. And then you come to this place and find yourself disarmed. You see that it has its own culture, its own ages and venerable traditions, that the people do not tremble before you. And then you understand that there is not just intelligent life in outer space, but life so graceful that it shames you into silence.

I've had positive experiences in France in the past - they seem happier dealing with mediocre (at best) French than in my travels to Quebec. I can definitely understand getting cranky at some tourists though - particularly those who think that anyone can understand English if you speak it loudly enough.

The Dutch situation on the language front seems a bit different again. I recently stumbled across an article entitled Let us speak Dutch, say expats discussing some of the difficulties foreigners have had learning to speak Dutch due to the people there often switching to English if they detect a foreign accent. Still living in the area seems a good way to try to pickup the language. Will have to see how effective this trip is in that regard.