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I lived a bit in Sweden, and got the opposite frustration: everything was in English. Even people would see I'm not swedish and speak to me in English. How was
by forty 5y ago
I lived a bit in Sweden, and got the opposite frustration: everything was in English. Even people would see I'm not swedish and speak to me in English. How was I supposed to learn swedish without ever hearing any swedish? (I did have lessons, but it takes much more time to learn with lessons only)
- marcus_holmes 5y agoI'm having the same problem learning German in Berlin - everyone speaks English here and the slightest mispronunciation or "vie bitte?" and they switch to English. Which is appreciated - I'm a foreigner in their country and they're being incredibly hospitable to speak my language - but it makes practising German very difficult. Also, a Swedish distant relative of mine told me (decades ago) "We Swedes prefer to talk to foreigners in their own language, and keep Swedish as a private language for ourselves". I've never heard that said by anyone else, but it has always stuck with me as a cool idea, and the antithesis of the English ;)