Which language would you use?

[Alpo]

You are in a foreign country. You are fluent in the language. You see someone that you are fairly certain is from your country, so you step over to say hi.

 

Would you speak in the language of the foreign country you are in, or in your native tongue?

[PowderRiverCowboy]

6 minutes ago, Alpo said:

You are in a foreign country. You are fluent in the language. You see someone that you are fairly certain is from your country, so you step over to say hi.

 

Would you speak in the language of the foreign country you are in, or in your native tongue?

Am I trying to fit in or establish  a controlled edge , by not letting on that I understand what they may say to others ?

 

[Alpo]

Comic strip. We have a second race of sentient beings - not human. They have their own language.

 

In this particular strip, the little girl has lived among humans for 6 years, and is quite fluent in English. She sees one of her fellow countrymen at one of those "you grill your own steak" restaurants in Michigan.

 

 

Just idly wondered why she spoke to him in English instead of their language. Which got me wondering what other people would do in that situation.

[Subdeacon Joe]

29 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Just idly wondered why she spoke to him in English instead of their language. Which got me wondering what other people would do in that situation.

 

To not call attention to themselves.

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

If I'm in another country and I see someone that I think is another American, I'm going to speak to him in my language. If I'm mistaken and he doesn't understand me, I'll apologize in the language of the country I'm in. If he responds in another language I know, I'll speak to him in that language. If he responds in a language I don't know, I'll probably shake my head to let him know that I don't understand and move on.

[Rip Snorter]

Nowadays there are phone sized language translators and phones that can take translator programs.  Google translate works wonderfully well for the written word, I use it often.  If I were going to a foreign country, I would consider the $129 for a translator to be money well spent.  When I went to the UK decades back, having English as one of my majors, I never realized I actually spoke American, though I caught on fairly quickly.

[MizPete]

2 hours ago, Rip Snorter said:

I never realized I actually spoke American, though I caught on fairly quickly.

As you do.  Try it in Ireland.  And Norn Irlan.

Went into that public house across the street from the opera house in Belfast -- Crown Vic?  We order our glasses & the barman sez "Yanks, are ye?" 

I respond "well, she is, but I, sir, was born & raised in the sovereign State of South Carolina."  I thought he was gonna come right across that bar.  "ACH! And it's a rebel y'are!"  And just like that, we were the evening's entertainment.

[Calamity Kris]

4 hours ago, Alpo said:

Would you speak in the language of the foreign country you are in, or in your native tongue?

 

COBOL  or C++ if I have to................

 

{You left that one wide open}    

[Alpo]

6 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

To not call attention to themselves.

Eyes like a snake, teeth like a shark, and she's purple while he is green.

 

They don't need to worry about calling attention to themselves. People will notice them.

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

bad, .......... I would probably say something badly, ....... thus bad language .......  

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Why would I talk to anyone?  (I always do, but why would I?)

[watab kid]

simply put - you speak the language they know best if you know it , its all about communicating ....try both ? 

 

i wish in my youth id not have been forbidden in my family to ;learn the german they could have shared , i wish id had the opportunity my kids had to learn spanish and french , for that matter i wish the other side of my family had taught me the gallic they thought was useless , 

[Ozark Huckleberry]

17 hours ago, Alpo said:

Just idly wondered why she spoke to him in English instead of their language.

Probably make it easier for you to read.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

If I don’t know the person, which was your premise, I speak in the language that I presume they know.

 

I recall an instance in Montreal when I asked for directions in bad French and the response, though helpful, was in equally bad Québécois.

[The Shoer 27979]

Your question is a loaded question.

 

I spent 4 years in Germany when I was in the army. I did both I could speak germany pretty good, so I didn't  have problems talking with the locals but a number of them also talk to me in english

[Texas Joker]

19 hours ago, watab kid said:

simply put - you speak the language they know best if you know it , its all about communicating ....try both ? 

 

i wish in my youth id not have been forbidden in my family to ;learn the german they could have shared , i wish id had the opportunity my kids had to learn spanish and french , for that matter i wish the other side of my family had taught me the gallic they thought was useless , 

Phone app called duolingo.