Except that if you were trying to order a pint in Helsinki, you could get away with not just the obvious Finnish, but also Swedish (taught to all Finns in school) and English (also, I think, taught to all Finns; and the TV from the UK and USA is not dubbed), and probably German or Russian if you got lucky with your barkeep.
I.e. most Finns speak not just their first language, but also the other official langauge of the country, and English. And many of them will speak another one as well! (Speak enough to un
All good:) Props to the Finnish education system, but I figure it's polite to at least make an attempt to learn the language of the country you're going to (even if you do end up murdering tenses, etc). For me, there's very little worse for my mood than trying to give a German tourist directions around Nottingham when he only wants to speak German. My response when I encounter such ignorami is to point at their map and wave with the other hand in the universal greeting "If you can't be arsed to make an effort how do you expect others to help you?" Let them find their own way.
I had the opposite problem. In Germany and Austria, I'd try to speak German and as soon as they heard my American accent they would speak English back to me.
all in all... (Score:5, Insightful)
...someone I could sit down over a pint with and just geek out. Cool.
Re: (Score:5, Funny)
They use liters in Finland, you insensitive clod!
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OK.
Otan 560 mililitres olutta ja paketti perunalastuja
Thanks, Bing Translate. :)
Re: (Score:1)
It's actually "En stor stark och lite chips tack."
(Linux speaks swedish...)
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tha's no good to me if I'm trying to order a pint and some flakeys in Helsinki! :x
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Except that if you were trying to order a pint in Helsinki, you could get away with not just the obvious Finnish, but also Swedish (taught to all Finns in school) and English (also, I think, taught to all Finns; and the TV from the UK and USA is not dubbed), and probably German or Russian if you got lucky with your barkeep.
I.e. most Finns speak not just their first language, but also the other official langauge of the country, and English. And many of them will speak another one as well! (Speak enough to un
Re:all in all... (Score:2)
All good :) Props to the Finnish education system, but I figure it's polite to at least make an attempt to learn the language of the country you're going to (even if you do end up murdering tenses, etc). For me, there's very little worse for my mood than trying to give a German tourist directions around Nottingham when he only wants to speak German. My response when I encounter such ignorami is to point at their map and wave with the other hand in the universal greeting "If you can't be arsed to make an effort how do you expect others to help you?" Let them find their own way.
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Don't mention the - oh, never mind.
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:-/
I had the opposite problem. In Germany and Austria, I'd try to speak German and as soon as they heard my American accent they would speak English back to me.
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Really? I would expect that here in Sweden but in my experience Germans really like speaking German and would rather not speak English if avoidable.