Woman Refuses To Learn Boyfriend's Native Language Because "It's Ugly" Despite Living There For 5 Years, Drama Ensues Bored Panda Bored Panda works better on our iPhone app Continue in app Continue in browser Like what you're reading? Subscribe to our top stories Please enter email address By submitting email you agree to get Bored Panda newsletter. We respect your privacy. We will not publish or share your email address in any way. Almost finished... To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you. Almost finished... To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you. Are you leaving already? Are you sure you want to post this? We're asking people to rethink comments that seem similar to others that have been reported or downvoted this warning is a mistake x x Let's fight boredom together! Continue with Facebook Continue with Google or Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Forgot your password? Creating an account means you agree with Bored Panda's Terms of Service 0, text: error()"> Become a member Sign Up Have an account? Login Forgot your password? Creating an account means you agree with Bored Panda's Terms of Service 0, text: error(), css: errorCssClass"> Password reminder Please provide your email address and we will send your password shortly. Send Have an account? Login Don't have an account? Sign Up Get our top 10 stories in your inbox: Finish 0, text: error(), css: errorCssClass"> Please enter your email to complete registration Finish 0, text: error(), css: errorCssClass"> Activate to continue Your account is not active. We have sent an email to the address you provided with an activation link. Check your inbox, and click on the link to activate your account. I have already activated my account Resend activation link We and our trusted partners use technology such as cookies on our site to personalize content and ads, provide social media features, and analyze our traffic. You can read more about it and change your preferences here. Agree Bored Panda iOS App Available on App Store Continue in App Bored Panda Android App Available on Google Play Continue in App By using our services you agree to our use of cookies to improve your visit. You can change your preferences here. Agree BoredPanda Login Add Post Search ArtPhotographyAnimalsFunnyTravelIllustrationComicsDIYGood NewsParentingChallengeAsk Pandas More Featured Trending Latest Newsletter The Bored Panda iOS app is live! Fight boredom with iPhones and iPads here. Bored Panda Woman Refuses To Learn Boyfriend s Native Language Because It s Ugly Despite Living There For 5 Years Drama Ensues Home Partnership Advertise Success stories Jobs About us Contact 92points 2.4K Relationships2 months ago

Woman Refuses To Learn Boyfriend s Native Language Because It s Ugly Despite Living There For 5 Years Drama Ensues

Liucija Adomaite and
Ieva Pečiulytė
Recently, this story a 28-year-old Dutch man posted on the AITA subreddit attracted everyone's attention. In a lengthy post, the Redditor Bruvikmage shared how he's been living with his Italian girlfriend in one of the Netherlands' cities. Apparently, the 25-year-old woman, who has spent already 5 years in his country, doesn't particularly enjoy the Dutch way of living, especially the language part of it. "She is living here for 5 years, and we are dating for almost 2 years. She speaks no Dutch and makes no effort to learn. Even simple phrases/greetings, she won't bother with them," the author explained. Although he finds it weird and frustrating that she doesn't put any effort into learning his language, his girlfriend thinks that Dutch is "difficult, sounds ugly, and she doesn't need it for her work or social life, so what's the point?" As you may suspect, the point came when this got on the author's nerves and he simply blew up.

Recently a frustrated man shared how his girlfriend refused to learn his native language although she s been living in his country for 5 years

While others thought nobody is right in this situation

Anyone can write on Bored Panda. Start writing! Follow Bored Panda on Google News! Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda! Share on Facebook Liucija Adomaite Liucija Adomaite Writer, BoredPanda staff Liucija Adomaite is a creative mind with years of experience in copywriting. She has a dynamic set of experiences from advertising, academia, and journalism. This time, she has set out on a journey to investigate the ways in which we communicate ideas on a large scale. Her current mission is to find a magic formula for how to make ideas, news, and other such things spread like a virus. Read more » Ieva Pečiulytė Ieva Pečiulytė Author, BoredPanda staff Ieva is a Photo Editor at Bored Panda. Art was always a big part of her life. She studied at Vilnius Academy of Arts, worked in the art supplies store and learned a lot about artsy tools. Later on she got to work at the art gallery and met lots of artists, mastered the picture framing process and sold a great number of paintings. After gaining some experience Ieva decided to focus on creating art herself. Boogie Studio - analog collage art studio was born. Ieva's love for images and layering goes well with both creating collages by hand and working with digital images as a Photo Editor. Read more » Show All Contributors Get the latest inspiring stories via our awesome iOS app! Download Bored Panda app! You May Like 30 Y.O. 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Insulting the language on top of that is just, well, insulting. We all make efforts for our partners, and it sounds like she isn't doing that (well, on this front, anyway. She could be making lots of effort on other fronts). 45 45points reply Groundcontroltomajortom Groundcontroltomajortom Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago (edited) She seems like she's coming off a bit arrogant to me? Like she's too good to speak their language which is incredibly rude. Calling a language ugly is just downright disrespectful. 39 39points reply Load More Replies... Glynn Reid Glynn Reid Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Yep, she's insulted the language, the people who speak it and the country, itself. I'd be more than a bit put out by that tbh. I've been to Italy. I've been to Netherlands, and although I'm half Italian and can understand a fair bit (without necessarily speaking it) I'd rather hear Dutch, which is a little like Scots (which is my other half). Italian meanwhile sounds like a pneumatic drill. -1 -1point reply Marco Valkenberg Marco Valkenberg Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago I think it's very rude. I also live in The Netherlands in Amsterdam. And yes we all speak English and switch to English very fast if we hear someone does not speak Dutch. It has come to the point that even the employees in stores don't speak Dutch (because everyone speaks English). I think it's very bad. Not all Dutch people speak fluent English. So they struggle to get some service. If you live here please learn our beautiful language. And The Dutch have to be a bit more helpful and speak more Dutch to help expats to be able to practice more :) 40 40points reply Sanne H. Sanne H. Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago I used to be that Dutch person who switches to English, but a few years ago I stopped being that cooperative. My mother tongue is beautiful and rich of words in its own way, and I expect waiters and shopkeepers in The Netherlands to manage at least the basics of it if I visit their place. Plus if we speak English to them all the time, they will never learn and integrate well. 22 22points reply Load More Replies... Ivy la Sangrienta Ivy la Sangrienta Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago It's the same in Finland. Most people quickly switch to English so the foreigners that try to learn never have a chance to practice. 1 1point reply iseefractals iseefractals Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 2 months ago Language is about being able to effectively communicate with others, currently about 23 million people out of 8 billion speak dutch. While 1.5 billion speak english fluently and another half billion speak it passably. The older you get the harder it is to learn new languages, particularly when those other languages have little to no commonality with your native tongue, and some people (like me who are half DEAF) have an even harder time understanding people that speak a language we're familiar with, let alone we don't really understand. 0 0points reply Na Schi Na Schi Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago (edited) Sounds like what's happening in Berlin, Germany too. What I like to add: you will never get the gist of a country, the culture and why people are acting in the way they do, when not being able to speak the countrie's language. Some cultural aspects simply cannot be translated into English. This normally is not an issue when going on vacation or having a short termed stay in a country, but living for a time span over several years, one will simply exclude themselves from a great part of living there. (Edit: spelling... and I fortunately not living in Berlin.) 11 11points reply Denise Melek Denise Melek Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago (edited) I think it's really rude that some people and employees here just start talking English to everyone expecting them all to be able to talk English, while they don't even make the effort to say hi or bye in German. 1 1point reply Karina Karina Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago People of Berlin: that's a mix of people who are trying to accommodate foreigners and people who are ignorant/pottymouthed and blame it on Berliner Schnauze. I guess it's like in most bigger cities: people in the city center tend to be a bit mire global, while the ones in the outskirts or countryside aren't that good in communicating in other languages... 0 0points reply Sue User Sue User Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago (edited) The last sentence is cruicial. I went to the store and had to give my address. Cool, we just learned this. Slowly start. Cashier goes " this would be much faster if we did it in english" Crushed. But seriously, even us expats said "goedemorge", "goedenacht" and "doei" . Edit: us expats used basic dutch with each other, not just when interacting with dutch speakers. 5 5points reply Marco Valkenberg Marco Valkenberg Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Yes true! But many employees are not able toesprak Dutch. That's not a good development. Maar je hebt gelijk. We moeten meer Nederlands praten met de mensen die de taal willen leren. 3 3points reply Peter H Peter H Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago (edited) Before living in NL, I spent a little over a year in Brussels. My office was out near the airport, so whenever I had to order lunch etc. I had to do so in Flemish. When I moved to Amsterdam, people told me I had a Belgian accent… then, when I went back to Belgium for a meeting a couple of years later, I was told I had a *Dutch* accent. I was so proud of myself. 2 2points reply Linda Williams Linda Williams Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago It bothers me when I visit Amsterdam for instance, that in restaurants I'm being approached in English right away. I'm in my freaking home country so I stubbornly keep ordering in Dutch . 1 1point reply RafCo (he/him) RafCo (he/him) Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago My friends from Amsterdam tell me it's common for the Dutch people to speak to each other in English. This is some serious colonial craziness. If I'm in your country, feel free to correct my Dutch. I will try 0 0points reply Rod Rod Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago This comment is hidden. Click here to view. I'm French and lived in NL (A'dam and Den Hagg) for 7 years and practically don't speak Dutch. I've only met 2 locals who did not speak English while lots of Dutch people understand English very well (thank you subtitled TV programs) but often speak with a thick accent and poor grammar (not blamming or shamming, just saying). Also, all my non Dutch friends complained that when they tried to speak Dutch the locals would always go back to English because they had no patience. Also, I'm sorry but you can't say that Dutch is a beautiful language. Ik hou van jou, seriously? Sounds like a war declaration.... -6 -6points reply Helen X Helen X Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Dear Rod, I’m also Dutch. If you can come up with a better way to say that line - in Dutch please- then I will forgive you for finding it ugly. 5 5points reply Peter H Peter H Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago ‘Ik hou van jou’ isn’t a particularly ugly sentence… he mused while eating an uitsmijter met hagelslag halfway between Utrecht and Scheveningen and reading a book about geschiedenis. :p 2 2points reply Konpat Konpat Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Typical French arrogance 2 2points reply Sue User Sue User Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Yes, the french can read a car manual and make it sound sexy. And there was speculation amoung my expat friend on what Dutch pillow talj would sound like. 1 1point reply Bored Retsuko Bored Retsuko Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Sorry, I think the pillow talk thing is so silly. *rolls eyes in German* 4 4points reply joop joop Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago https://youtu.be/7Qm1rlDhg_o 0 0points reply Bi-Polar Express Bi-Polar Express Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago How do you manage to live somewhere for 5 years and not pick up any of the language? 27 27points reply DrBronxx DrBronxx Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago (edited) You'd be surprised. I've been in Japan for more than 10 years. My wife speaks almost perfect English, and her family all speak English to some degree as well. My job is entirely in English, and use of Japanese is discouraged most of the time. I had to go out of my way to learn Japanese, and it's really not as good as it should be. 18 18points reply Load More Replies... MediumPimpin MediumPimpin Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago My wife's family is from Japan and as her parents age and the country I live in becomes more violent bankrupt by the hour, we have considered moving the family to Japan. What sort of job in Japan is English only? I know enough Japanese to get the gist of an eavesdropped conversation or a news report in Japanese. I am conversational in Spanish and German. 3 3points reply DrBronxx DrBronxx Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Basically, most jobs teaching require just English. A lot of places use immersion environments, where the student is encouraged to use English only. Thus, the teachers shouldn't use Japanese in class. This is much easier to do if you just don't know the language. 0 0points reply JB JB Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Watashiwa, j desu. Just because it’s hard/different doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying. 1 1point reply Nitka Tsar Nitka Tsar Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Easy in a country where most people speak multiple languages. Most European countries learn English as their first official second language at school. Sometimes they start even in preschool. Why do you think so many non native english speakers frequent the english side of the internet? I knew an English teacher in Hamburg (Germany) who did not speak a word of German. He was sad about it too. You see, he didn't get a chance to learn German because everyone automatically spoke english to him. 6 6points reply Helen X Helen X Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago (edited) Hi Bi-Polar, indeed you’d be surprised. People from other countries that don’t speak a word of Dutch after living in the country for 30 (yes, 30) years. Children doing the talking and translation for the parents. Personally, I think it’s a sign of respect to at least try to speak/learn the language of the country you’re in. I try so, for example on holiday. But not everyone thinks like that. I once had a colleague, she was about 28 yrs old and born in the country (so, her parents had to have been there equally long). The daughter had to make the calls to the doctor on behalf of her mother, bc the mother didn’t speak Dutch well enough to make the calls herself. I know this to be a major issue in the Netherlands and many people are enormously irritated by this kind of behavior from expats. Also, can you still call someone an expat after living in the country for that long? It’s the reason why I personally won’t talk in English anymore to expats. I will talk Dutch, but slower so it’s easier to follow for them. That way they can learn the language and it will help them in the future. 3 3points reply Peter H Peter H Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago (edited) I lived in NL for 3 years and learned enough Dutch to get by fairly well, but it wasn’t up to a professional level… so during business meetings the others would speak Dutch (mostly) and I would answer in English (mostly). It was weird, but it worked. 0 0points reply Nitka Tsar Nitka Tsar Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Oh shoot forgot something: by preschool I meant Elementary school but my son had English in German Kindergarten (which is what the US calls preschool), so the sentence above is still correct. 1 1point reply iseefractals iseefractals Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 2 months ago Easily. I've lived in Romania for 11 years and while i can read the language decently, i'm literally (not f*cking figuratively) half deaf, so understanding it and getting pronunciations correct is very difficult for me, especially since just like with every language, regional dialects are very much a thing here. I know some basic phrases and words to say, but there's really not much point. Out of 8 billion people, 17 million speak romanian (in a country of nearly 20 million mind you) almost everyone under the age of 40 here speaks at least some english, translator apps are only getting better and quite honestly given the quality of people in our city and my inability to tolerate rude or stupid people, being able to communicate more freely would only create problems. My wife speaks english so often and fluently that she struggles with her NATIVE language. Every time i start making another attempt to learn the language she insists that it's not worth it. 0 0points reply Makajha Banjjjak Makajha Banjjjak Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago I've known a German guy that has been in Poland for 20 years, married to Polish, and didn't speak the language. 0 0points reply Bi-Polar Express Bi-Polar Express Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago I have learned all of the Spanish I speak (even though I did take it in high school and college) from my parents and children in the last 25 years. One parent told me,"You work on your Spanish and I work on my English and help each other." I guess I can't imagine not even trying. I know a little bit of Vietnamese, Punjabi, and Tagalog for the same reasons. 0 0points reply Load More Comments POST DrBronxx DrBronxx Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Sounds to me like the OP is feeling more disrespect towards his country/culture, rather than simply being annoyed that she doesn't want to learn the language. Insulting the language on top of that is just, well, insulting. We all make efforts for our partners, and it sounds like she isn't doing that (well, on this front, anyway. She could be making lots of effort on other fronts). 45 45points reply Groundcontroltomajortom Groundcontroltomajortom Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago (edited) She seems like she's coming off a bit arrogant to me? Like she's too good to speak their language which is incredibly rude. Calling a language ugly is just downright disrespectful. 39 39points reply Load More Replies... Glynn Reid Glynn Reid Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Yep, she's insulted the language, the people who speak it and the country, itself. I'd be more than a bit put out by that tbh. I've been to Italy. I've been to Netherlands, and although I'm half Italian and can understand a fair bit (without necessarily speaking it) I'd rather hear Dutch, which is a little like Scots (which is my other half). Italian meanwhile sounds like a pneumatic drill. -1 -1point reply Marco Valkenberg Marco Valkenberg Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago I think it's very rude. I also live in The Netherlands in Amsterdam. And yes we all speak English and switch to English very fast if we hear someone does not speak Dutch. It has come to the point that even the employees in stores don't speak Dutch (because everyone speaks English). I think it's very bad. Not all Dutch people speak fluent English. So they struggle to get some service. If you live here please learn our beautiful language. And The Dutch have to be a bit more helpful and speak more Dutch to help expats to be able to practice more :) 40 40points reply Sanne H. Sanne H. Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago I used to be that Dutch person who switches to English, but a few years ago I stopped being that cooperative. My mother tongue is beautiful and rich of words in its own way, and I expect waiters and shopkeepers in The Netherlands to manage at least the basics of it if I visit their place. Plus if we speak English to them all the time, they will never learn and integrate well. 22 22points reply Load More Replies... Ivy la Sangrienta Ivy la Sangrienta Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago It's the same in Finland. Most people quickly switch to English so the foreigners that try to learn never have a chance to practice. 1 1point reply iseefractals iseefractals Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 2 months ago Language is about being able to effectively communicate with others, currently about 23 million people out of 8 billion speak dutch. While 1.5 billion speak english fluently and another half billion speak it passably. The older you get the harder it is to learn new languages, particularly when those other languages have little to no commonality with your native tongue, and some people (like me who are half DEAF) have an even harder time understanding people that speak a language we're familiar with, let alone we don't really understand. 0 0points reply Na Schi Na Schi Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago (edited) Sounds like what's happening in Berlin, Germany too. What I like to add: you will never get the gist of a country, the culture and why people are acting in the way they do, when not being able to speak the countrie's language. Some cultural aspects simply cannot be translated into English. This normally is not an issue when going on vacation or having a short termed stay in a country, but living for a time span over several years, one will simply exclude themselves from a great part of living there. (Edit: spelling... and I fortunately not living in Berlin.) 11 11points reply Denise Melek Denise Melek Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago (edited) I think it's really rude that some people and employees here just start talking English to everyone expecting them all to be able to talk English, while they don't even make the effort to say hi or bye in German. 1 1point reply Karina Karina Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago People of Berlin: that's a mix of people who are trying to accommodate foreigners and people who are ignorant/pottymouthed and blame it on Berliner Schnauze. I guess it's like in most bigger cities: people in the city center tend to be a bit mire global, while the ones in the outskirts or countryside aren't that good in communicating in other languages... 0 0points reply Sue User Sue User Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago (edited) The last sentence is cruicial. I went to the store and had to give my address. Cool, we just learned this. Slowly start. Cashier goes " this would be much faster if we did it in english" Crushed. But seriously, even us expats said "goedemorge", "goedenacht" and "doei" . Edit: us expats used basic dutch with each other, not just when interacting with dutch speakers. 5 5points reply Marco Valkenberg Marco Valkenberg Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Yes true! But many employees are not able toesprak Dutch. That's not a good development. Maar je hebt gelijk. We moeten meer Nederlands praten met de mensen die de taal willen leren. 3 3points reply Peter H Peter H Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago (edited) Before living in NL, I spent a little over a year in Brussels. My office was out near the airport, so whenever I had to order lunch etc. I had to do so in Flemish. When I moved to Amsterdam, people told me I had a Belgian accent… then, when I went back to Belgium for a meeting a couple of years later, I was told I had a *Dutch* accent. I was so proud of myself. 2 2points reply Linda Williams Linda Williams Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago It bothers me when I visit Amsterdam for instance, that in restaurants I'm being approached in English right away. I'm in my freaking home country so I stubbornly keep ordering in Dutch . 1 1point reply RafCo (he/him) RafCo (he/him) Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago My friends from Amsterdam tell me it's common for the Dutch people to speak to each other in English. This is some serious colonial craziness. If I'm in your country, feel free to correct my Dutch. I will try 0 0points reply Rod Rod Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago This comment is hidden. Click here to view. I'm French and lived in NL (A'dam and Den Hagg) for 7 years and practically don't speak Dutch. I've only met 2 locals who did not speak English while lots of Dutch people understand English very well (thank you subtitled TV programs) but often speak with a thick accent and poor grammar (not blamming or shamming, just saying). Also, all my non Dutch friends complained that when they tried to speak Dutch the locals would always go back to English because they had no patience. Also, I'm sorry but you can't say that Dutch is a beautiful language. Ik hou van jou, seriously? Sounds like a war declaration.... -6 -6points reply Helen X Helen X Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Dear Rod, I’m also Dutch. If you can come up with a better way to say that line - in Dutch please- then I will forgive you for finding it ugly. 5 5points reply Peter H Peter H Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago ‘Ik hou van jou’ isn’t a particularly ugly sentence… he mused while eating an uitsmijter met hagelslag halfway between Utrecht and Scheveningen and reading a book about geschiedenis. :p 2 2points reply Konpat Konpat Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Typical French arrogance 2 2points reply Sue User Sue User Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Yes, the french can read a car manual and make it sound sexy. And there was speculation amoung my expat friend on what Dutch pillow talj would sound like. 1 1point reply Bored Retsuko Bored Retsuko Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Sorry, I think the pillow talk thing is so silly. *rolls eyes in German* 4 4points reply joop joop Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago https://youtu.be/7Qm1rlDhg_o 0 0points reply Bi-Polar Express Bi-Polar Express Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago How do you manage to live somewhere for 5 years and not pick up any of the language? 27 27points reply DrBronxx DrBronxx Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago (edited) You'd be surprised. I've been in Japan for more than 10 years. My wife speaks almost perfect English, and her family all speak English to some degree as well. My job is entirely in English, and use of Japanese is discouraged most of the time. I had to go out of my way to learn Japanese, and it's really not as good as it should be. 18 18points reply Load More Replies... MediumPimpin MediumPimpin Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago My wife's family is from Japan and as her parents age and the country I live in becomes more violent bankrupt by the hour, we have considered moving the family to Japan. What sort of job in Japan is English only? I know enough Japanese to get the gist of an eavesdropped conversation or a news report in Japanese. I am conversational in Spanish and German. 3 3points reply DrBronxx DrBronxx Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Basically, most jobs teaching require just English. A lot of places use immersion environments, where the student is encouraged to use English only. Thus, the teachers shouldn't use Japanese in class. This is much easier to do if you just don't know the language. 0 0points reply JB JB Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Watashiwa, j desu. Just because it’s hard/different doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying. 1 1point reply Nitka Tsar Nitka Tsar Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Easy in a country where most people speak multiple languages. Most European countries learn English as their first official second language at school. Sometimes they start even in preschool. Why do you think so many non native english speakers frequent the english side of the internet? I knew an English teacher in Hamburg (Germany) who did not speak a word of German. He was sad about it too. You see, he didn't get a chance to learn German because everyone automatically spoke english to him. 6 6points reply Helen X Helen X Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago (edited) Hi Bi-Polar, indeed you’d be surprised. People from other countries that don’t speak a word of Dutch after living in the country for 30 (yes, 30) years. Children doing the talking and translation for the parents. Personally, I think it’s a sign of respect to at least try to speak/learn the language of the country you’re in. I try so, for example on holiday. But not everyone thinks like that. I once had a colleague, she was about 28 yrs old and born in the country (so, her parents had to have been there equally long). The daughter had to make the calls to the doctor on behalf of her mother, bc the mother didn’t speak Dutch well enough to make the calls herself. I know this to be a major issue in the Netherlands and many people are enormously irritated by this kind of behavior from expats. Also, can you still call someone an expat after living in the country for that long? It’s the reason why I personally won’t talk in English anymore to expats. I will talk Dutch, but slower so it’s easier to follow for them. That way they can learn the language and it will help them in the future. 3 3points reply Peter H Peter H Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago (edited) I lived in NL for 3 years and learned enough Dutch to get by fairly well, but it wasn’t up to a professional level… so during business meetings the others would speak Dutch (mostly) and I would answer in English (mostly). It was weird, but it worked. 0 0points reply Nitka Tsar Nitka Tsar Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago Oh shoot forgot something: by preschool I meant Elementary school but my son had English in German Kindergarten (which is what the US calls preschool), so the sentence above is still correct. 1 1point reply iseefractals iseefractals Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 2 months ago Easily. I've lived in Romania for 11 years and while i can read the language decently, i'm literally (not f*cking figuratively) half deaf, so understanding it and getting pronunciations correct is very difficult for me, especially since just like with every language, regional dialects are very much a thing here. I know some basic phrases and words to say, but there's really not much point. Out of 8 billion people, 17 million speak romanian (in a country of nearly 20 million mind you) almost everyone under the age of 40 here speaks at least some english, translator apps are only getting better and quite honestly given the quality of people in our city and my inability to tolerate rude or stupid people, being able to communicate more freely would only create problems. My wife speaks english so often and fluently that she struggles with her NATIVE language. Every time i start making another attempt to learn the language she insists that it's not worth it. 0 0points reply Makajha Banjjjak Makajha Banjjjak Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago I've known a German guy that has been in Poland for 20 years, married to Polish, and didn't speak the language. 0 0points reply Bi-Polar Express Bi-Polar Express Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 months ago I have learned all of the Spanish I speak (even though I did take it in high school and college) from my parents and children in the last 25 years. One parent told me,"You work on your Spanish and I work on my English and help each other." I guess I can't imagine not even trying. I know a little bit of Vietnamese, Punjabi, and Tagalog for the same reasons. 0 0points reply Load More Comments Popular on Bored Panda I Used AI To See What These 23 Popular Cartoon Characters Would Look Like In Real Life 30 Y.O. 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