Language Barrier

Sounds odd.
I can only comment on Malaysia and Indonesia but people here tend to be fluent in at least two languages and, in the case of the well educated, have a reasonable grasp of English.
Malaysia is more interesting. I know many in that country with fluency in at least 3 or four languages and have known a few with seven to chose from.
That applies more to the Chinese population than others.

yes it happens all the time to me.  because i am defiantly all american looking and i do speak some of the language  I can go to some places and they understand everything i say perfectly in spanish.  They appreciate my business and they also respect the fact that i am able to speak a little of their language and have said to me  how fortunate I am  that i can speak both.

But, on the other hand when i have been other places they act as if they have no clue what i am saying in spanish which pisses me off because i know they do understand. Some just don't like americans because they blame the U.S. for the downfall of their government and financial situation. This I have been told by the people of Madrid.  Give Me A Break!!  Madrid I am here for Three years.  Deal with it.

It all depends who you encounter.

I wonder how much laguage would  be a barrier  for a mixte couple

Perhaps the OP should learn Ovambo.
Just a thought.

If both of couple can't speak fluently the language what they use for communicating ?!!

mas fred wrote:

Perhaps the OP should learn Ovambo.
Just a thought.

Even if i did it would only be beneficial while i am here and i'm off to Canada very soon so it's a waste of time

at work i once had a elderly couple talk slowly to me asking about picture frames.....i ware a hijab. you should have seen thier face when i said 'Yes, its over here' in perfect english. or they ask slowley if i work there. I ware works polo shirt with company name on back. one of these days im going to say 'no, im wareing this for fun'

This happens as well when different cultures use different words of the same language in different countries, like mandarin being used in Singapore, Taiwan and China. All three countries can use different words to talk about the same thing.

Hi Hericles,

Being from Angola, I guess that you know Brazil is also a country where Portuguese is the official language. Although English is the universal language of commerce you will find only a few Brazilians speak it fluently. I was almost completely fluent in Portuguese when I came to Brazil over ten years ago because I made a real effort to learn the language.

English is a good 'back-up' language to have when you travel since it is the second most widly spoken in the world, but it isn't a substitute for learning the local language.

I do feel that when one moves to another country for any period of time they should make the effort to learn to speak the local language at the very least to a basic level in order to survive in day to day situations such as you mentioned.

In the workplace perhaps English is enough to get you by, but in the world outside you must expect that if you don't speak the local language people simply will not understand you and perhaps even ignore you.

As far as learning too many languages being a reason that they aren't fluent in their mother tongue, I bet that's got more to do with the education system than the number of languages. You should see what they've done with teaching English in my home country (Canada) it's shamefull how poorly the young people graduating these days are able to read, write and speak English.

I have none of this problem when I lived in Singapore few years back, as I must said that Singaporeans has a good grasp of common used language in whole wide world, which is English and Chinese. Aside from that, some of them can speak reasonable standard of Bahasa Indonesia and Malaysian. And I must give them thumbssss up for them~!

While living in Seoul, I often have a language barrier problem here, not that I'm saying Korean have a bad English, but most of them appreciate their national language too much, that even when I said I only know how to speak English, they still talk in Korean, only in a slower speed. Man, it's like I would be able to figure what they're trying to say if they speak it in a slower speed. The good side is that it's what motivates me to learn Korean so that I will be able to live here comfortably~

utte86 is right with regards to singapore . i agree

best option is to learn to speak the local langauage.
basics required for day to day transactions or in cases of emergency

I don't expect them to speak my language.  In their country they should be able to speak their language.  Try going to the US and expecting people to speak Swahili.  It won't happen. 

The more educated around here speak English and you can easily get by without speaking any Chinese, but I try to make an effort because Chinese is their langauge.  I don't know why anyone would move to another country and not want to learn the local language.

harira111 wrote:

If both of couple can't speak fluently the language what they use for communicating ?!!

Body language!!!!

I understand more Arabic than I can speak.
I can go to the market and tell them what I want and ask what it cost and I can deal with it. Also I can have simply conversations but that is all.
Unfortionally in my inlaws almost everybody doens't speak English. And that is strange because the second language is English.

But I am very happy that I go to the university in september to start with the classic Arabic language.

When I talk about body language, I mean something else...

Dove get hubby to ask for things and talk to you first in arabic then repeat in english.
When hubby comes home me going to do that with him.
Primadonna

that sounds like a plan