BECAUSE ENGLISH ALWAYS WORKS IF YOU CAN SPEAK IT LOUD ENOUGH
Are there still people that use an accent of the country that they are in but using English words expecting the native person to understand them?
That vaguely works in Japan, because they have a ton of English loanwords, and a lot of them wouldn’t be understood by a monolingual Japanese speaker unless you say them in a Japanese accent (it’s a bit more complicated than that but that’s the gist).
I’ve been to Thailand. It’s not the Americans that are complaining, it’s the British and the Australians, both of which also speak English.
Why are you jumping to Americans?
Why do you presume this is about Americans?
American tourists are much less common in Thailand than English or Australians.
as if it’s not the english making this complaint
Probably because if your business is based around profiting from American tourists, you’re probably going to need to know some English. It seems to me like when money is involved people tend to find a way to communicate what they need to regardless of what languages they share, though. And obviously this does not excuse rude tourists.
Or tourists in general. I’m Estonian. Loads of Estonians go to Thailand. I doubt any of them speak Thai. Most speak English to some degree.
Why’s everyone assuming this isn’t in America? I’ve seen signs like this here and it’s immigrants’ way of saying “listen we’re trying to speak your language well, but please be sympathetic as it’s our second (or more) language”. We’re generally fine with people not speaking English when we’re outside America, it’s inside our borders that we’re tremendous assholes about it
Because the plants and the building look very Thai, or at least tropical and not in the US.
Besides people speaking bad English to you are braver and more engaging than the average person in general. Id speak bad English with just about anyone before talking to most of my family lol.
Thanks for the examples
Because we have to if they don’t speak our language
I’m American and I am continually shocked and grateful how commonly I’m catered to internationally. I mean it’s not fair in a sense but also there does need to be a global language and the English happened to be the right kind of assholes to win that honor.
It’s not necessarily just for Americans. English is the most spoken language in the world when you include people’s second language. That German tourist probably isn’t going to know Thai and that Thai cafe probably isn’t going to know German, but they can muddle though with English.
Right. I was addressing the title of the post. I am assuming Americans are among the worst among presuming English should be spoken everywhere, but I don’t fall into that category. I marvel at the fact that it’s so widely spoken.
It’s always so foreign to me that anglophones never need to switch to English to communicate internationally, that’s just their everyday language
Yeah, it’s pretty crazy to me and I’m an anglophone who barely knows other languages. It’s a marvel.
Classic mistake of someone Thai trying to speak English. They forgot to write the words “long time” at the end.
LOL. Bet few got the reference
From an award winning war movie made by one of the most prominent directors of all time that had the referenced line sampled in a famous hip hop song?
Or was it something else?
The movie was “Full Metal Jacket”
Is this sign in the US or Thailand? If it’s US there is no excuse. If it’s Thailand then speak Thai or stfu.
Judging by the foliage I’d guess Thailand over the US
I live in the Netherlands, where it’s not the Americans assuming everyone speaks English. Sometimes it’s quite bizarre too: we have this deaf, Ukrainian colleague who doesn’t speak but communicates with Russian Sign Language (and whatever gestures you can think up on the spot), and it’s very blatant that he doesn’t speak English because he doesn’t speak and can’t hear, and has never written any notes in English or anything like that, but I’ve still caught other colleagues mouthing, or sometimes outright saying, things to him in English, as if it’d help. I remember once coming across a mute man who obviously understood Dutch, who then tried to ask someone a question, who then replied in a very “my husband is antiquair” kind of way. Otherwise it’s mostly European tourists and immigrants who assume you speak English.
I’m a native speaker of German and of course I spoke English to the people in the Netherlands when I was there. I don’t know any Dutch and don’t expect them to speak German, so English is pragmatically the language that we have most likely in common.
Of course as people pointed out, this is far from a uniquely American thing. Also, I’m sure by American they mean the USA, but “Americans” are inclusive of north, central and south America. Here in Europe, we also expect people to speak English as it is the universal language.
As a side note, it is also often commented that Americans (USA Americans) can only speak English. This is a narrow view that primarily broadly looks at white Americans and ignores the fact that the US is a huge melting pot of cultures and for many US citizens English is their second or third language.
It goes without being said, the contents of the picture should never have a reason to be written. Don’t be a dick to people trying to help you.
Man, that bugs me how many Americans are out there giving the rest of us a bad name. I don’t travel, but if I did, I’d be grateful a non-native English speaker knew any English at all. And not learning enough of their language to at least get you by for the trip just sounds like poor planning in general. Some people are just incapable of looking before they leap, and for some reason a bunch of those people travel.
You guys still seem to miss the point of the message, it checks out you’re kinda dumb and it’s not surprised your manners are shit, cause you only care about yourselves and pretend that everyone at earth have to serve you
I think you should go take a nice walk. Could do wonders for you
I’ve been to a few other countries. The people (especially retail workers) are extremely patient. All it takes is a smile and “excuse me” and they will try as hard as they can to build a communication bridge. I don’t know why we Americans have no patience
Because most people in the Western world do speak it proficiently. As well as the more urban populations of much of Asia.
