June 17, 2003
Oh My!
SDB on Americans not visiting France these days.
When I took a vacation in the Netherlands, about 1990, when we first got out of the train from Schiphol to the center of Amsterdam I wanted to ask a railway guard there for help. But I didn't want to make the traditional ugly-American assumption that "everyone speaks English", so I walked up to the railway guard and said, "Pardon me, do you speak English"? His answer: "Yes. Do you?"After that, we stopped asking while we were in any of the major cities. (I was told later that this was pretty typical Dutch humor.) The simple fact is that everyone, everyone we ran into in Amsterdam and The Hague were fluent in English. It wasn't until we were out in the sticks, such as the Frisian countryside, or Waddeneilanden, that it was actually something we needed to worry about, and even there the young people all spoke English. But even there, no one ever seemed to resent us as English-only speakers. I don't recall any negative vibes from anyone anywhere.
I had a similar experience there. We were in Harlem, and I needed to get my glasses fixed, so I walked into an eyeglass shop on the main street, hoping to get them repaired. The very nice lady in the store explained to me that Dutch is a language no one in Holland expected anyone to learn!
At the opposite end of the spectrum, I had several unpleasant experiences in Heidelberg, even though I'd learned the basics (please, thank you, hello, goodbye and such) so as not to be rude. We walked into one shop so I could look at some earrings that were in the window, and when I asked about them, was informed this wasn't a "tourist store". Then, at the winery at the castle, I asked for a glass of wine, using what German I knew, and the guy at the counter literally slammed the glass down in front of me like he'd really have rather thrown it at me.
Holland, I'd love to visit again, Germany isn't on my revisit list!
Posted by Ithildin at June 17, 2003 5:21 PM | PROCURE FINE OLD WORLD ABSINTHE