I’m a Serbian guy with a very strong grasp of (American) English. When traveling across Europe I always end up feeling ridiculous the moment I open my mouth to speak English. Some anectodes:
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I often went to Greece with my family as a kid, like a lot of Serbs. The struggle of forcing myself to say “hello” instead of “hi” (which feels more natural to me, but older Greeks don’t get it) led me to just start saying “hi” in Greek, and l ended up developing this habit of using “hi” in the local language instead of using the dreaded (for me) textbook English “hello”.
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In Italy nobody knows what a “bathroom” is. Toilet? That they understand, unfortunately that word made me feel dirty every time I said it because, unlike “bathroom”, you’re indirectly saying you need to take a dump as opposed to leaving it ambiguous.
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In Spain a shady guy offering drugs came up to me while I was with a friend. “We’re fine, thanks,” I instinctively replied. “What?” he asked with a puzzled look. I reiterated while gesturing ‘no’, “we’re fine“. He still didn’t get it. I just gave up and said “no buy” like a caveman.
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A very old-looking (like 85+) English lady came up to me asking for directions. She had this old-timey kind of English accent and seemed shy in a polite British way, so I ended up sounding overly formal, kind of textbook English, because I was afraid if I started talking the way I ‘naturally’ do in English, she might miss something and not ask me to clarify or repeat myself out of that shy politeness.
There’s more but these are the ones from my most recent trips. Lord, save me from the cringe.
Comments
mostly when talking to americans :p
I’m an American living in the Netherlands. I meet internationals and Dutchies on the daily. Everyone speaks British English.
I have a Boston Accent, a soft one, but I still have one. So sometimes people can’t understand a word I say. So I have to use a more “correct” word.
Americans use more words for the same object and concept, but the words we use implies casualness, vulgarity, humor, and many other things. So my husband and I learned to not use words that imply anything. Our language must be very direct. For example, asking for a toilet is rude in American. Restroom is the most proper, bathroom is casual, and “the John” is old timey humor.
Occasionally Americans are lazy and won’t use a specific word but a more vague one. Such as basket, box, bin, and container. Or we will have 5 words for the same object. Such as trash can, garbage, waste bin, bin, waste bucket, and trash. British English or people speaking English as a second language don’t do this. They are hyper specific.
Then we misunderstand people often as they use words that imply in American English but not in British English or they use words in the British context which is subtly different than the American one.
It’s best to assume you’re the only one speaking American English. You will have less misunderstandings while you travel Europe.
Yeah, when travelling I noticed that my friend was actually able to talk to people more casually as he didn’t need to “dumb down” which made me feel really stupid.
It’s not necessarily dumbing your English level down as much as it is about mimicking the accent of the locals. The best example I have is from South Korea, where I learned how to speak with a thick Korean accent and all of the sudden people started to understand me 🙂
I think what’s more ridiculous than speaking caveman English is sounding like an American when you’re a born-and-raised European. But hey, that might be just me
I do the same when I’m talking to someone who doesn’t speak English very well, I “dumb it down” as you say in short phrases so they can understand.
“Hello” as a greeting and calling the toilet… the toilet are both very common in England so you’d better not travel here lest you need to dumb yourself down too much!
Toilet is British English, bathroom is American English. I guess Italians use British English. If you asked me for the bathroom I’d probably know what you mean but it’s really formal.
You were eventually doing linguistic accommodation – matching the linguistic resources of your conversation partner.
It’s one of the basic principles of communication and it’s just how languages work.
If you instead chose not to accommodate, that would be intentionally choosing to put distance between you and your conversation partner. This happens too, but it’s “marked”, as linguists say. It’s not the default thing, so when you do it, it means something.
It’s more the difference between British English and American English.
This will vary from place to place.
I’m in Belgium and I would say most of the time it’s American English that is used. It it might be different for different generations.
I don’t think your examples are dumbing down, most of them are just you having to use different words that are easier to understand. Tbh, trying to refuse something with the “we’re fine” instead of any other sentence that includes the word “no” is odd.
I do dumb down my English sometimes, but i don’t just use incorrect English. I cut out unnecessary words and sometimes I try to rephrase it using tenses that don’t lead to a long and weird sentence structure for a beginner.
But if you ask where the bathroom is, they are unlikely to think that you are going for a wash, they think you are going to do what we all do. Toilet or loo are the most commonly used words in the UK, lavatory if you are posh. When people say bathroom, I feel like saying there is no bath in there. If they say restroom I want to ask if they are tired. 😆😆
>In Italy nobody knows what a “bathroom” is. Toilet? That they understand, unfortunately that word made me feel dirty every time I said it because, unlike “bathroom”, you’re indirectly saying you need to take a dump as opposed to leaving it ambiguous.
Saying “bathroom” instead of “toilet” is silly American prudishness. “Toilet” is perfectly clean and acceptable elsewhere in the Anglosphere.
It’s not like your interlocutor has no idea you’re really asking for somewhere to take a dump if you say “where’s the bathroom”. No-one is thinking you’re going to take a shower when you ask that.
Come down here to Australia and solve that problem – you can ask where the dunny is.
Imagine having to dumb down your English to the point of confusing yourself with people whose primary language should be English.
That was my experience for two weeks in Dubai having to manage and train a team of Indians,while also interfacing with another team of Indians who should have known how the machines they were installing worked (their boss then specifically told me to only speak with their onsite manager as,by his own admission “all the other dudes are idiots”).
I travel a lot for work,and in Europe, I must admit that we Italians are amongst the worst in English literacy,closely followed by our French and Spanish cousins.
Northerners I found to be very proficient, while eastern Europeans was hit or miss. Ex-Yugoslavian countries I have no issues as I speak Croatian, but other places like Romania,Bulgaria,Poland,Hungary,Slovakia etc., I had to dumb down my English A LOT to match their level if I was speaking with anyone over the age of 35/40. Even people that should have known English,like my company’s dealers and salespeople
I got this at work a lot, usually when writing slides or reports. Brits think my language too pompous, dutchies too complicated, and the rest goes “I don’t get what tis means”. Burns my ass every time
You’re definitely over thinking the whole toilet thing. 🤣
Congratulations, you just learnt about adaptive communication: tailoring your speech to fit your audience.
The point of communication is not to make everybody understand how smart you are or how good your English is. The point is to make people understand what you’re saying. If that requires you to use simpler language then it’s smart to adapt your speech unless you prefer spending much more time than necessary making yourself understood. This isn’t just something you should do in English but in your native language and any other language you speak to a high level too.
Also don’t knock cave man language. My cave man Spanish got me surprisingly far in Spain. Very efficient way of communicating basic needs.
This is just communicating. If someone doesn’t understand you, you try other ways of phrasing things.
It’s not really a question of dumbing down, it’s just adapting the way you speak to be understood by people that don’t know the language as well as you do.
I speak French quite well, but when French folk talk to me they avoid 17th century literary references and funky-ass urban slang because my sexy foreign accent tells them I might not know what they’re talking about.
I’m a native English speaker, but actually using Standard Scottish English seems fake as fuck to me. I talk like an STV newsreader at work sometimes, or if I’m travelling or talking to tourists, but I don’t see it as dumbing down, just adapting.
It’s weird seeing folk working for US-owned hotel and ‘restaurant’ chains not only being forced to harangue diners when they’re trying to dine, but also having to say shit like ‘hi’ and ‘you guys’, seeing them looking embarassed and missing out on the tips they’d have got if they’d talked like normal humans.
I studied english at an academic level and used to consider myself fluent in it. Sure I was never at true native speaker’s level, but I was definitely at C1 (at uni I even acquired the C2 certificate). Years after dropping the academic setting and not using english on a daily basis, it became much worse. Funnily enough I then got a serbian boyfriend and his and his family’s english have deteriorated mine even further ahahah. I sound like a cave woman fr now specially when im with them so yeah code switching is definitely a thing.