Hughes does one

  • Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
  • Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!
I've lived in China. Very few people speak English away from the commercial hotspots.
Try going to Chongqing, a city of 30 million inhabitants, and finding people who speak English.
 
I've lived in China. Very few people speak English away from the commercial hotspots.
Try going to Chongqing, a city of 30 million inhabitants, and finding people who speak English.

Can't be true. Bob spoke to Chinese people who spoke English, so they all do.<laugh>

The lad I referred to who teaches English lives in a city, which .I had never heard of, with a population if million. He said, to give an idea of how crowded and noisy it is, those 6 million are in a city whose area is about the size of Hull.
 
Can't be true. Bob spoke to Chinese people who spoke English, so they all do.<laugh>

The lad I referred to who teaches English lives in a city, which .I had never heard of, with a population if million. He said, to give an idea of how crowded and noisy it is, those 6 million are in a city whose area is about the size of Hull.
English is the international language of business and tourism, so companies who operate in those sectors employ English-speakers.
 
Get away from the main cities in Spain, Italy, France etc and a lot don't speak English. And why should they?

Considering most of the people I went to see were in businesses that were supplying footwear to England, you'd expect they would.

The French often don't speak English out of principal.

Italy used to be my main market outside the UK and most of the people I came across spoke English, same in Portugal.

In the Netherlands and Scandinavia, you'll be hard pushed to find anyone who doesn't speak English (maybe some oldies).
 
English is the international language of business and tourism, so companies who operate in those sectors employ English-speakers.

Precisely and therefore one does not need to learn Chinese.

I refer back to my comment "most of the world that matters does (speak English)"
 
I've been working in Hong Kong and China for thirty years and I've barely ever met anyone who doesn't speak English.

Obviously, after thirty years, I picked up some things and it goes down well if you do speak a bit. But my Chinese speaking ability runs to 'turn right', 'turn left', 'stop here', 'you need to make them quicker', 'the price is too high', 'no problem', 'you must be mad', 'Marlboro, red colour', 'the bill please', 'happy new year', 'good morning', 'one Tsing Tao', 'two Tsing Tao' etc (I can only remember how to order up to four, there were generally only ever four of us in a bar).

Ironically, I recently did a trip to Spain visiting footwear factories and most of the people I met didn't speak English.
You missed off the, two please-preferably twIns.
 
I don't think it is true that the English are ignorant of foreign language, an awful lot do know the basics of French, Spanish and Italian and make an effort when in those countries.
Mark Hughes's Taff lot though, how many actually speak their own language?
 
Look you linguaphiles, I've come on here to read about the truly shocking news of Mark Hughes' departure and have had to wade through page after page of acrimonious bibble which stretches around the whole ****ing globe.


Just get yourself a Babel Fish, available at all good Intergalactic mega-hyper-stores, galaxy wide and you're sorted.


You'll never be pissed off by a shoulder shrugging Gallic galoot again.

Or confused by a curious Chinaman.

Or dissed by a doughty Dane.

Ignored by an idiotic Italian.



Life's blissful in a land where a tiny piscis is excreting a telepathic matrix in your ear.

Problem solved.
 
  • Like
Reactions: balkan tiger
Considering most of the people I went to see were in businesses that were supplying footwear to England, you'd expect they would.

The French often don't speak English out of principal.

Italy used to be my main market outside the UK and most of the people I came across spoke English, same in Portugal.

In the Netherlands and Scandinavia, you'll be hard pushed to find anyone who doesn't speak English (maybe some oldies).

Would they be fluent enough in English to know the difference between principle and principal?

Don't have much experience of Scandinavia bit in the Netherlands English was a compulsory foreign language, they had to do two, even back in the 60s and 70s when I first went so even oldies would know some English.
 
Look you linguaphiles, I've come on here to read about the truly shocking news of Mark Hughes' departure and have had to wade through page after page of acrimonious bibble which stretches around the whole ****ing globe.


Just get yourself a Babel Fish, available at all good Intergalactic mega-hyper-stores, galaxy wide and you're sorted.


You'll never be pissed off by a shoulder shrugging Gallic galoot again.

Or confused by a curious Chinaman.

Or dissed by a doughty Dane.

Ignored by an idiotic Italian.



Life's blissful in a land where a tiny piscis is excreting a telepathic matrix in your ear.

Problem solved.

Would Babel Fish tell you what bibble is? Or explain how a pebble is acrimonious.
 
How the **** has a thread about Hughes doing one turned into a thread of international languages in business?

Anyway, I work for a Spanish company and they all speak excellent English.

Feliz Navidad.
 
  • Like
Reactions: howdentiger
How the **** has a thread about Hughes doing one turned into a thread of international languages in business?

Anyway, I work for a Spanish company and they all speak excellent English.

Feliz Navidad.
y Feliz año nuevo tambien
 
How the **** has a thread about Hughes doing one turned into a thread of international languages in business?

Anyway, I work for a Spanish company and they all speak excellent English.

Feliz Navidad.

Even the Spanish cleaners?
 
I've met a few foreigners over the years, and some of the cocky ones like to show their prowess in our language.

I've had to point out their errors and make them say it correctly on on more than one occasion.
on and on