misspoptart

Well, for Mexico it's no problem. They will understand you but laugh frequently at your pompousness. Don't let it get to you. For Belize, well, the official language is English. I'm not sure how much Spanish is actually spoken there, or what kind of Spanish it is.


You could also try to make friends on Skype.

Good luck again.

PoorOldPo

Gaeilge, french and english. Used to be pretty fluent in the other two. My sister is completely fluent in gaeilge.

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Unknown Soldier

Spanish of course is a much better language in regards to tourism and travel etc but as far as work goes, I'd say German was far more useful.

They tend to understand Castellano speakers ok in most parts of Latin America, the problem often occurs when Latin Americans go to Spain and speakers of Castellano can have problems understanding them initially. You have to remember that the differences between Spanish from Latin America and Spain are far greater than between UK English and American English. Even within Latin America the differences between say Mexican Spanish and Chilean Spanish are substantial.

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Darren

Fluently bilingual(English/French). My dad is Québécois and we speak almost exclusively in French. My mom is American and doesn't speak a lick of French, so I grew up learning both languages concurrently.

Cuthbert

Cheers mate.

That's quite good that you've been fluent in both all your life.

I've noticed on here the bilingual posters are all non-British. And by non-British I really just mean English as at least the Irish and Welsh have their own languages plus speak English too (I think anyway, maybe someone from Ireland, Scotland or Wales can correct me). I find it a bit embarrassing that most English people can't speak a word of any other language yet most of the rest of the world can speak English, that seems quite ignorant tbh, especially when we go on holiday to other countries and don't bother to learn a few words of their language.

misspoptart

In what lines of work?

Worldwide, there are 92 million native German speakers, in seven countries on one continent. Meanwhile, there are almost 390 million native Spanish speakers (+70 million as a second language), spread over 25 countries, 3 continents, and comprising 6% of the world's population. Even if a number of jobs seek German speakers, MANY more seek Spanish speakers. Having "Spanish" on your CV is an asset for almost any line of work.

However, some types of work may require German, and for those it would make sense. In any case, you will probably meet many more Spanish speakers in your lifetime than you would any other language.

[MERIT]

I am fluent in English and conversational in Spanish. I took four years of Spanish in high school and still remember the better part of it.

Burning Down

But a lot of people in other countries always want a chance to practise their English with native speakers who visit their country. My boyfriend was always practising his English with foreigners and especially the numerous American and British ex-pats in Belgrade. I think a lot of people around the world, when they find out you are Canadian/American/British/Australian, will want to speak English to you regardless of whether or not you'd like to hone your language skills with them (of course they want you to help them hone their English skills).

Cuthbert

Yeah I get if you meet people in a social setting then that makes sense. But what if you go into a shop and the person serving doesn't understand very well? There's a joke that English people just point at stuff and shout in the hope they'll understand. I dunno, I spoke about this before with a friend, and I had the opinion that learning a few words and speaking to them in their language would go down well and he kept saying there's no point, doesn't make a difference, why make the effort if they will speak English anyway.

I do find it ignorant, especially with the amount of English people who get uppity about immigrants not speaking our language when they're in England. I'd imagine once the person you're talking to realises you're shit at their language then they'd naturally just switch the conversation to English anyway, but it seems nice to at least try, as opposed to just "f*ck 'em, they speak our language anyway".

Darren

It is true that most of the world's population is multi-lingual. I live just outside of Montreal during the week and New York on weekends. In Canada outside of Quebec, there's a good amount of bilingual people but most are unilingual English speakers. In Quebec, French is the sole official language. But if you live in and around Montreal, public service jobs require you to be fluent in both French and English. Then when I live in New York, we're right back to the unilingual English speakers.

It is true than Anglophones are vastly unilingual. And it's also highly disrespectful to go to another country and expect to be catered to in English.