"Speak English to me!"

I'm in Munich at the moment visiting family as it was my little cousins' christening today and also researching for my dissertation. As I study English Language at university I feel that it is time that I actually write a blog post related to my course. This, and the fact that being in Germany again has really got me thinking about my frustrating, lacking ability to speak German.

Myself, my sister Jess and my little cousin Luisa.

Sometimes I feel utterly embarrassed and not just of myself but of other people when we are not capable to communicate with people when we are in a foreign country. We are so incredibly lucky when we are born and bred in the country that’s language dominates the world. However we sometimes forget that so many other languages have influenced the English we speak today.

There are countless examples of words that have been borrowed from other languages all over the world. I hate when I go to another country such as when I have visited Germany, Holland, Belgium and Italy with minimum knowledge of the language(s) they speak. Sometimes it is awful when I turn to someone and have to ask the dreaded question of, ‘do you speak English?’ to which they could reply very bluntly and sometimes do, ‘no I don’t’,’ but in their own language of course. Although, if you’re lucky they will adjust their vulnerability to speak a language that you can comprehend. I don’t know if this is just my opinion, but I feel so silly and quite frankly, a little dumb. In some ways it must make us appear stubborn or snobby as we are confident native speakers of this powerful language, but that is definitely not the case for me.

When I was in Dusseldorf a Spanish guy asked me if I found it weird that everyone speaks my language but I quickly responded saying that I didn’t find it weird. I guess I am just used to it that it seems normal for a lot of people to speak English, use this as a lingua franca and a way of communicating amongst one another. Look at it this way, a couple of people have mentioned to me that the next in line for being the most commonly spoken language is Chinese Mandarin – have you ever tried to speak that? I know for sure that I haven’t and I can’t even bear to think how complicated and horrific it is to try and learn, but think for a second if this was the case… So many people have to learn English but because we are English and native speakers of it we feel that we don’t need to learn any other language. Admittedly this won’t be everyone’s idea.

I think it has something to do with our education system. In Germany children learn English as early as Kindergarten but most of us will learn a second language at the beginning of secondary school or perhaps a little in primary. There are tonnes of theories and linguists who look at the way children learn language and the age in which it is best to start with which most of them support the fact that the younger they begin, the better! I am almost thankful that due to my type of secondary school it was compulsory to learn to take a language subject as a GCSE and because of this I took French and proudly got a B. I can say minor things such as my name, my age, what I like, what I watch, feeling ill, etc. However I’ve not been put in the situation to truly speak it and have a real life conversation with a native speaker and if I did then honestly, I’d more than likely fall to pieces.

I had the chance to learn German in Germany and as much as people have said I was silly not to continue it, it was extremely daunting. The lessons were intense, consisting of four hours with no English spoken, just German and a lot of having to speak out. I’m not the most confident person and I decided that this was too much on top of already being in a foreign country away from home with not many people around me that I felt close to. It is one thing that I highly regret from my time abroad. I wish more than a lot of things that I could talk to the German half of my family with no problems, for them not to speak English and I would love to understand what my little cousins are saying when they run up to me and gesture things.

I guess it’s just quite sad how so many people adapt themselves and have the ability to communicate with us in our mother tongue when we cannot do the same for them. I love England most of the time but there will always be things I don’t agree with and I hate how separate we seem to be from the rest of Europe, it only takes a short ferry trip across the English Channel to acknowledge this. Obviously this lack of communication doesn’t account for all of us as; there are people who are fluent in another language such as French, German, Italian, Chinese and many others. It’s just the way in which English people, from the UK seem to lack this ability a lot more than foreigners. Well, at least it seems that way in my eyes. 

Laura May