Quote:
Originally Posted by thenry
unless someones on a holiday thats just arrogant. people living in a country should speak the said countries recognized language. may be I've been brought up in an old fashion way. its common courtesy to be honest.
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Sorry, but I disagree. It's extremely unnatural for me to speak English to my wife in a private conversation. When we're on a train, we're having just that. A private conversation. It would feel extremely awkward to do that in English.
Clearly, when there are other conversational partners we'll speak English, but I don't count complete strangers on the other side of a train aisle as conversational partners. I don't know how many languages you speak, but trust me, even after extensive experience, there is no substitute for native proficiency. I consider myself fluent in English, but my native command and vocabulary size is considerably better for the simple fact that I spent longer speaking it, and was educated in it.