When I wrote the first draft of this entry, it was on a two-day trip to the Netherlands with my pal Marc.
Athough I had a few phrases and a guidebook handy, English is a language that travels well. We were able to navigate the entire trip without a word of Dutch. For interest, I also brought my DAB+ radio nd found two stations with English-speaking presenters: the BBC World Service for news, and Pidi for dance music. Last year, we visited Sweden and we enjoyed a similar experience.
While the prevalence of English was most helpful for us, I’m also concerned about playing into the stereotype of the monolingual Brit.(Caveat: I can fluently understand the Scots language, but since that doesn’t help outside the country, I’ll set it aside here.) English is the lingua franca of aviation, computer code, and a huge chunk of the world’s film industry. It’s not difficult to see the lack of incentive for learning a second language.
The only real way to make a difference is to learn one that I can keep in my back pocket for future trips to mainland Europe. There are three current contenders:
- As French is a working language of both NATO and the UN, this seems an obvious choice.
- However, the easiest to pick up personally would be Spanish, as I studied this at high school, and this is also a UN language.
- Or is there a case for taking up German instead? It should be relatively easy to find classes and learning resources for this.
Alternatively, is there some other language or some better solution I should consider? It feels like a small yet deliberate courtesy to make some sort of effort.
Meanwhile, at least Marc and I can be proud of not playing up to another stereotype: antisocial behaviour abroad. After a burger and a stroopwafel, we were back at the hotel by 8pm.
Gavin Cameron 