I agree. Someone who works in costumer service/ selling/ catering in an area that is abundant with tourists and expats and foreigners should be able to speak english and preferably an aditional language. I don't acutally see why everyone seems to have a problem with that statement.

LOL.

I learnt languages out of need, because I had no choice but to communicate.

Maybe when you are in Spain and no one around speaks a word of english and you need to be understood, maybe then...all the spanish that you have been learning will suddenly come out

Can I just turn that on its head by saying would all those who are on this forum thread who used to work in any customer interfacing role back in their home country and who might have encountered people from another country and who ever bothered to learn the language(s) of those people, or ever address them in their own language (if only to say "Hello"), please make themselves known?

Also to turn the thread title on its head - If people want to come here and live in Spain, to live in to3wns and villages in Spain where the language is Spanish, they should learn Spanish not expect the local people to learn English or whatever other language the immigrant speaks!

After all, what was the cry when monolingual immigrants arrived 'back home' - 'They need to learn English if they want to live in Britain!"

I rest my case!

I used to employ two German speakers in my hotel.. simply because we had German clientele.

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I think that this generally sums up the attitude of so many: Are they true complaints? I don't know for certain but I wouldn't be surprised. These are reportedly "holiday maker's"comments but a lot of people still have these attitudes when they decide to emigrate and their decisions to do so and to which location are often just based on spending a week or two on hoiday somewhere.

From Thomas Cook Holidays - listing some guests' genuine complaints during the season


1. "I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts."

2. "It's lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons.

I often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time - this should be banned."

3. "On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy food at all."

4. "We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our swimming costumes and towels."

5. A tourist at a top African Game Lodge over looking a water hole, who spotted a visibly aroused elephant, complained that the sight of this rampant beast ruined his honeymoon by making him feel "inadequate".

6. A woman threatened to call police after claiming that she'd been locked in by staff.

When in fact, she had mistaken the "do not disturb" sign on the back of the door as a warning to remain in the room.

7. "The beach was too sandy."

8. "We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as yellow but it was white."

9. A guest at a Novotel in Australia complained his soup was too thick and strong. He was inadvertently slurping the gravy at the time.

10. "Topless sunbathing on the beach should be banned. The holiday was ruined as my husband spent all day looking at other women."

11. "We bought 'Ray-Ban' sunglasses for five Euros from a street trader, only to find out they were fake."


12. "No-one told us there would be fish in the sea. The children were startled."

13. "There was no egg slicer in the apartment..."


14. "We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish."

15. "The roads were uneven.."


16. "It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England it only took the Americans three hours to get home."

17. "I compared the size of our one-bedroom apartment to our friends' three-bedroom apartment and ours was significantly smaller.."

18. "The brochure stated: 'No hairdressers at the accommodation'. We're trainee hairdressers - will we be OK staying there?"

19. "There are too many Spanish people. The receptionist speaks Spanish. The food is Spanish. Too many foreigners now live abroad."

20. "We had to queue outside with no air conditioning."

21. "It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly guests before we travel."


22. "I was bitten by a mosquito, no-one said they could bite."


23. "My fiancé and I booked a twin-bedded room but we were placed in a double-bedded room. We now hold you responsible for the fact that I find myself pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked."


I loved number 10!

I spoke Spanish before meeting OH, but I definitely perfected it when I had no other choice but to speak it. I crack up when my students ask me if I speak Spanish. I wonder how they think I can go shopping/get the bus/find my way around without speaking Spanish up here!?

The answer to this is clear and obvious: the Government of every nation state should make a law which forbids entry to their country unless that person is 1) able to speak the native tongue fluently 2) wear the clothing of that country (including penis gourds and loin cloths if the customary dress 3) adopt that country's religion 4) adopt that country's dietary habits 5) pass an examination at the highest level on topics related to that country's history, art, literature and politics.
Only then would that person be fit to take up residence.
They would also have to agree not to live within a fifty-mile radius of a person of their nationality and not to listen to or read any material or eat any foodstuff emanating from their country of origin.
Simple, really.

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'The Owl of Minerva spreads her wings only at the onset of dusk'.

You hale from America where Spanish is spoken it is I believe taking over if not already taken over English as the first language. It if you are surrounded by a language when you are young I would guess it is easier.

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it's not spoken everywhere in the US - although I believe that it is the first 'second language' they are taught

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When I was last in New York it seemed that Spanish was more widely spoken than English.

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'The Owl of Minerva spreads her wings only at the onset of dusk'.