A humbling experience

[enlisted person]

Imagine what it must be like to be an immigrant coming to the US for the first time. You don't know the language and you can't read the signs. I been thinking about this and I really got a feel for what this must be like when I was in Czech.
You get turned around in the streets and get lost for a minute and can't ask a soul for directions or even what the time is.
I suppose one advantage immigrants have is that most of them are familiar with at least some English speaking and writing due to American movies and the fact that they listen to almost exclusive American pop music and wear a lot of clothes with English writing on them.
There are only about 12 million Czechs so their language does not make it out of their country very much. I think the experience was good for me because I was forced to learn the language a bit and if they all spoke english, I could have gotten by without that.
In the Eastern part of Czech Republic where I spent most of my time,the older folks don't know any english, they were forced to learn Russian in school. The younger folks had english in school but don't deal with any English speaking people so they forget it.
I think it would be good for any person to have an experience like that, speaking another language could be a very valuable tool. I would say that English does seem to be the most international language from what I could tell. I caught a bad cold my last few days in Czech and so I have been back about a week and getting back into the swing of things. Just now feeling better and taking time to reflect on my experience. I might end up going again but hopefully not real soon.

 

[auntiehill]

Traveling abroad is good for everyone. It lets you know, in no uncertain terms, that the world is NOT your country and not everyone lives, speaks, thinks, or eats exactly the way you and your neighbors do.

It's good to leave your "backyard" and see a little of the world, so you can really see things from someone else's point of view.

 

[AdAstra]

It's called the Czech Republic.

We get taught at least 3 languages in schools: Dutch, French and English; and many people take a 4th (German or Spanish are quite popular). Of course, a lot of people forget the ones they don't speak a lot, but I train my French and English daily with my colleagues.
Travelling to other countries is quite easy here too: I'm 20 km from the Dutch border and about 150 km from either the German or French border. Travelling to the UK or Luxemburg would take 2-3 hours as well. Yay Europe.

 

[enlisted person]

It's called the Czech Republic.

We get taught at least 3 languages in schools: Dutch, French and English; and many people take a 4th (German or Spanish are quite popular). Of course, a lot of people forget the ones they don't speak a lot, but I train my French and English daily with my colleagues.
Travelling to other countries is quite easy here too: I'm 20 km from the Dutch border and about 150 km from either the German or French border. Travelling to the UK or Luxemburg would take 2-3 hours as well. Yay Europe.

It is indeed called the Czech Republic, no offense meant. Is that where you are now?
Edit: I see your are in Belgium from you location. I could see being able to speak other languages being almost a necessity in that area. I wish I had the opportunity to learn other languages in school. From what I remember they had these French and Spanish clubs that you had to join and your folks had to pay a bunch of money for a two week trip there. Basically you had to be rich to join the club. I don't recall being able to just choose a class for a foreign language. I would have liked to learn German, it would have helped me in my job right now. I have learned to read some German the hard way by figuring out meanings in technical manuals for industrial controls.

 

[thestrangequark]

^You didn't have a foreign language requirement in high school? I thought all US high schools did. Part of the problem with American schools, of course, is that most don't begin to teach foreign languages until high school, when our capacity to learn languages as significantly diminished. I think foreign language should be a requirement from grade 1, personally.

It sounds like you really enjoyed your experience and learned a lot, and that's fantastic. I recently returned from India, and it was my first time in a country where I didn't speak the language -- I spoke just enough Spanish to get by in Mexico, and while I speak no Arabic, Egyptians are taught French in school so I was able to get by in Egypt with that. Of course, many people were fluent in English in India, so I wasn't completely lost.

 

[enlisted person]

^You didn't have a foreign language requirement in high school? I thought all US high schools did. Part of the problem with American schools, of course, is that most don't begin to teach foreign languages until high school, when our capacity to learn languages as significantly diminished. I think foreign language should be a requirement from grade 1, personally.

It sounds like you really enjoyed your experience and learned a lot, and that's fantastic. I recently returned from India, and it was my first time in a country where I didn't speak the language -- I spoke just enough Spanish to get by in Mexico, and while I speak no Arabic, Egyptians are taught French in school so I was able to get by in Egypt with that. Of course, many people were fluent in English in India, so I wasn't completely lost.

No, I don't know of any foreign language requirement in any US school system. Most high school graduates can not even speak English well, I am ashamed to say. I don't even know of a place around here that you could learn a language like German right now. I would like to know more than what I have derived from war movies and technical manuals.
Adršpach is a Czech village in the north and we went there to see the rocks.
http://www.adrspach.com/
They seem to have mainly German tourists there. They have this boat ride up there in a little lake. It was pretty. I found out I could speak a heck of a lot more german than I could Czech. I think if a person were totally immersed in that type of situation for a while that learning another language would be easier. Necessity motivates one to learn a lot quicker

 

[thestrangequark]

^It's possible that it varies from state to state. I went to high school in Seattle and we had a foreign language requirement.

 

[enlisted person]

^It's possible that it varies from state to state. I went to high school in Seattle and we had a foreign language requirement.

I suppose it does. I didn't know that some states required that. Still you have to use it. The part of Czech republic where I was working didn't see many English speaking folks. I would say the prevalent language there besides Czech was german due to the surrounding countries. One of the interpreters for another company there was a Russian. You could tell that some of the older folks knew Russian when he spoke to them but they did not like it or him worth a damn, for obvious reasons.