If someone came up to you, here in the good old U.S. of A., and asked you to speak to them in another language, could you? Could you just flip a switch and go from English to Spanish, or French?
Some people reading this right now probably could do that, but not the majority.
Yet when my wife and I vacationed in Montreal last week, we almost expected that everyone there would speak English — for us. It’s an American way of thinking, I guess.
Mainly they did. As I mentioned, they could flip the switch and go from French to English to Spanish. It was amazing. After an all-French Mass at Notre Dame, the priest thanked all who attended in four languages.
Now I know that they have to speak English because of English-speaking tourists and the greater portion of Canada speaks English, but I think other countries should stick to their proverbial dialect guns and challenge us to learn their language.
Maybe it bugs me because we don’t strive to learn or speak the language of others in case we run into a visitor in our country. We just assume others will conform to us, because we’re Americans.
Now I’m not offering an opinion on a national language within our borders or anything like that, since I know that debate is always out there. I just feel bad — I guess that’s the word — that some countries with their own dominant language, feel obligated to speak ours as well.
They don’t stick to their language and ask us to conform to them. I wish they would.
Again, I get it that we’re the common tourist, spending money in their counties and it behooves them to speak our language because it leads to more of our money, but I still don’t like the dominance we have to make it so. I’d prefer the challenge of learning their language.
Typically, when you’re on vacation you want to do as the locals do and experience life like they do. During our time in Montreal we tried to do as much of that as possible, but it always bugged me that they were so ready for English and met our every need when it came to communication.
From hotel desk clerks, to shop owners, waiters and street performers, they were all on their game when it came to English.
Now, imagine you’re a French-speaking individual with little to no English at all. The opposite situation of Katie and I in Montreal. You’re on Niagara Falls Boulevard after visiting the American side of the Falls and want to ask a question of a local passerby, or heck, even a server at a restaurant. What are the chances someone speaks fluent French for you?
Fat chance, right?
I haven’t tested it lately — or at all — but I’d venture a guess that some hotels and shops around the Falls would do OK with tourists speaking other languages, but not great. Maybe I’m wrong and there’s multiple staff members at the hotels, restaurants and shops that can speak other languages, but I’d be surprised.
Asking the hypothetical Niagara Falls Boulevard workers to speak multiple languages flies in the face of my point that I want countries to stick to their languages and make the rest of us work at it, but it would be the equivalent of what we’re asking other counties to do for us currently.
America is a dominant country. Depending on who you ask, we’re the most dominant. English is what we primarily speak, so in order to get our business, other countries conform and make us comfortable. When we’re comfortable, we visit and spend our American dollars.
We might be the most dominant, but we’re certainly not the most educated or progressive.
If given the opportunity, I think other countries should bump us from our comfort zone and make us learn their language when visiting.
Tim Marren is managing editor of the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal. Contact him at tim.marren@
lockportjournal.com or 439-9222.
Tim Marren
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Tim Marren / Lockport Union-Sun & Journal Managing Editor
MARREN: Dialect dominance not always great
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