This is something I've been wondering about and I'm interested to hear everyone's opinion about this. This discussion is not really about learning English, but more of a discussion of people's experience with any language.
If you were to meet someone in your country who's native language is the language you're currently learning and also speaks your native language, what language would you want to have a conversation in? It certainly does make it easier for me when I'm in a foreign country and the conversation is in English, my native language. I also know non-Asian Americans who are learning Chinese/Japanese and went to China/Japan to practice the language, only to return not having any opportunity for practice due to them standing out as a foreigner. At the same time, it makes me wonder if I'm offending the other person and giving the idea of "your English is terrible, I'm going to start talking in your language so I think the conversation would go more smoothly."
If you're traveling to a country where you only know a few words such as "please," "thank you" and "hello," would it be more appropriate to use those words in that language or just speak in English for the entire trip? I've grown up hearing "If you're going to live here, at least learn the damn language" in regards to immigrants who don't speak English well. I would also get "Ni Haos" from random strangers for no apparent reason when I'm walking around in the US, even outside of a Chinese community. I grew up speaking English and Chinese, and I learned Japanese in the past couple of years. Currently those are the only three languages I can keep a conversation in. I would always get uncomfortable with the "If you're going to live here, at least learn the damn language" comment since most of the people I heard that comment from were people who only spoke English. This makes me wonder why we must force everyone to learn English but not bother with the other languages. Therefore, whenever I go to a country where the native language is one I don't speak, I try to learn as much as possible before traveling, but only manage to learn a couple words. This makes me unable to hold a conversation. When traveling, I do try to speak in the native language where I can, but from my past experience, I wonder if I am unintentionally offending people for doing this.
日本語を無作為に練習するつもりから、斎藤さんのアップをダオンロードしました。誰か斎藤さんのアップを使うことがありますか?いい経験がありましたか?どうと思いますか?教えてください。
