Countries where people dont speak english? | General discussion | Forum

http://www.fluentin3months.com/how-to-convince-natives-to-speak-to-you-in-their-language/

I think this topic is a bit stupid. Do you really speak four languages? I don't think you do. If you were a polyglot, you wouldn't have to ask such a basic question.

You can't force people to speak a particular language with you. You just can't. All you can do is speak THEIR language. I don't know why people don't get it.

You don't even need someone else to practice. If you were that motivated, you'd ask questions in the foreign language subsection of this forum.

P.S.: I'm French, and you'd find it impossible to make me switch to French during a conversation because I'd simply tell you that you can speak French to me if you want to, but that I'll keep on speaking English. I only make exceptions with people who specifically ask for help with French, or with people I highly respect.

I think Olive is just asking, in people's experiences (of countries he/she hasn't been to), which countries' people are more or less likely to try to talk to you in English.  Of course in any country, you can get people to speak their language (most people really aren't that stubborn), plus they won't necessarily even find out you're an English speaker.  

I don't think it's a stupid question.  I do think it's a bad reason to actually choose to learn a language, but it's obviously true that in some places you will find more advanced English speakers than others. No harm in sharing experiences.

I studied in Germany and had the same experience as you – most people just spoke English to me.  I was passionate about learning German, so I found people willing to speak the language with me, but it was often a struggle. 

I recently moved to China, and have found that people would mostly rather speak Chinese.  Many people don't speak good English, but even the ones that do (like most of the people at my company) only speak English with you if they think it's what you want or if you don't understand at all.  They are generally happy to go back to Chinese if that's your preference, even if they have fantastic English. 

When I lived in Taiwan my experiences were mixed, but I think that's because I was teaching English so my Taiwanese co-workers were English teachers who obviously really enjoyed speaking English.  Random people on the street would speak Chinese.

Still, I think it's ludicrous to choose a language based upon the level of a group of people in English. Here's how I see it: speak to the person in English if you want to, and use another language when you feel like it. There are much more interesting things to talk about, like language methods.

And as I said, the language the other person speaks is not something you can control, but you can control which language YOU choose to speak.

For a long time, I thought that I had to find "monolingual" English speakers. I couldn't have been more wrong. Most people are "inherently" monolingual, and your showing them that you kind of speak their language is usually enough to make them switch to their native language.

Let's face it, most people are lazy. If you offer them the opportunity to have a nice conversation in their native language, they're usually happy. Benny wrote a whole blog post on that issue. Also, you'll find English speakers everywhere, even on remote islands of the Pacific.

Again, the fact that you asked such a question in English worries me a bit. Maybe the answers you got are super helpful to you, I don't know, but I don't think you're dealing with this "problem" in the right way. This is a non-problem, by the way.

Oh, and if you speak the language, you'll find a way to use it. I only speak English to a couple of French people because it just happened. If they switch back to French for some reason, I'll do the same for a bit, then go back to English. If you sound English in the foreign language, find a way to deal with it, then lie about your nationality. (Say you speak some obscure language like swahili.)

Way to be incredibly insulting and offensive.

I didn't insult anyone. This is "trololol" as some would say. Sorry if you're so easily upset, I don't think I was being mean.