Only the French could come up with " taxing" English trains taking troops to the front-line to defend err France, In WW1

I disagree with most of the esteemed members' visions and I suppose most of the same members don't speak any French.

France is #1 Inbound Tourism country in the world with some 80 million* tourists on a yearly basis and I dare to say that most of those tourists do NOT speak any French, yet they like this beautiful country, it's cities, people, cuisine, castles and history, otherwise France wouldn't be the #1 inbound tourist country in the world since many years.

SO: how are 80 million tourists communicating in France ? You tell me.

I'm willing to bet that those numbers rely heavily on transit tourism or stopping over for a night on the way to somewhere else IOW - Northern Europeans travelling south to Spain, Italy, etc, and Southern Europeans (and Africans) travelling through to the UK. The Germans tend to spend more time in France and overstay their welcome.

The number of tourists is not the point of the OP; it was the (French) language problem.

But, the number of tourists to any given country, like Thailand for instance, with it's "promoted" numbers by the TAT (13-14 million) include also the numbers of returning Malaysians and other neighbouring citizens next to the tourists who travel from Thailand to Cambodia/Malaysia/Laos and counted for as individual tourists, every time they set foot (again) on Thai soil.

Those visits are considered facts as they are controlled and counted for by (re-) boarding/entry cards. The real Thai Inbound tourist number is likely closer to 9-10 million rather than 13-14 million

The number of tourists to Europe reach 470-480 million on a yearly basis and of course the number of tourists to France include multiple tourism and/or visits also.

But, the majority of those tourists do NOT speak any other language but their own and certainly most of the tourists do not master any other foreign language, whether it is French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese or Scandinavian language.

But I'm rather safe to claim that there are more mainland European people, managing to make themselves understandable in another European or World country in another language than their fellow native English speaking fellow world tourists.

The native English world citizens (from UK, US/Canada, Australia/NZ and other native English parts of the world) are spoilt (with their English) and lazy when it comes to master any other language but it's also an educational problem.

If the governments of the native English countries do not promote and encourage to study any foreign language, like Spanish (2nd world language after Mandarin with English on #3) who cares ?

The advantages of speaking one or more foreign language is only known to those who master other languages

LaoPo

I disagree with most of the esteemed members' visions and I suppose most of the same members don't speak any French.

France is #1 Inbound Tourism country in the world with some 80 million* tourists on a yearly basis and I dare to say that most of those tourists do NOT speak any French, yet they like this beautiful country, it's cities, people, cuisine, castles and history, otherwise France wouldn't be the #1 inbound tourist country in the world since many years.

SO: how are 80 million tourists communicating in France ? You tell me.

I think the OP's tourists from France he's meeting/seeing/dealing with in Thailand is not of the most educated kind since many educated French do speak English.

Note: maybe this answer some questions:

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

According to a survey, conducted by French market research institute IFOP for the weekly newspaper Dimanche Ouest France, 34 percent of French adults said they did not speak English. That means 66 percent spoke at least some English.

Twelve percent said they were fluent in English, six percent said they understood and spoke it well, and 48 percent said they " more or less" understood English but did not speak it fluently.

You will find that almost everyone in the hospitality industry (hotel clerks, waiters, etc) speaks enough English to do their job.

From: http://answers.yahoo...06212218AAbXBjN

LaoPo

Something like that. My father, sister and BIL arrived in Paris last week. I think they're already in Switzerland on their way to Tuscany. France is indeed a great port of debarcation, but I wouldn't put too much stock in the majority of travellers hanging around for long.

I disagree with most of the esteemed members' visions and I suppose most of the same members don't speak any French.

France is #1 Inbound Tourism country in the world with some 80 million* tourists on a yearly basis and I dare to say that most of those tourists do NOT speak any French, yet they like this beautiful country, it's cities, people, cuisine, castles and history, otherwise France wouldn't be the #1 inbound tourist country in the world since many years.

SO: how are 80 million tourists communicating in France ? You tell me.

I'm willing to bet that those numbers rely heavily on transit tourism or stopping over for a night on the way to somewhere else IOW - Northern Europeans travelling south to Spain, Italy, etc, and Southern Europeans (and Africans) travelling through to the UK. The Germans tend to spend more time in France and overstay their welcome.

The number of tourists is not the point of the OP; it was the (French) language problem.

You're the one who brought it up in the first place. I just showed that it is highly misleading.

I just showed that it is highly misleading.

I suppose you mean the number of 80 million tourists to France.

I don't think you showed the number of 80 million is misleading since you're not quoting from any reliable source but if the number would be misleading, all the other statistics of world tourism would be misleading, whether in- or outbound tourism.

But if you want to learn more about tourism and quote from reliable sources you can always order the detailed studies from the UNWTO organisation

http://unwto.org/

LaoPo

Probably among the tourist figures for France are also the asylum seekers / refugees / lazy oiks that are trying to get through the border controls into UK.

Every time they nip across to the ferries / Eurostar / row-boats and are turned back, that's another travel-tourist statistic for the French.

And then there used to be all the Brit day-trippers going to Calais to buy their cheap drugs-of-choice. (Alcohol, tobacco, what-have-you)

I disagree with most of the esteemed members' visions and I suppose most of the same members don't speak any French.

France is #1 Inbound Tourism country in the world with some 80 million* tourists on a yearly basis and I dare to say that most of those tourists do NOT speak any French, yet they like this beautiful country, it's cities, people, cuisine, castles and history, otherwise France wouldn't be the #1 inbound tourist country in the world since many years.

SO: how are 80 million tourists communicating in France ? You tell me.

I'm willing to bet that those numbers rely heavily on transit tourism or stopping over for a night on the way to somewhere else IOW - Northern Europeans travelling south to Spain, Italy, etc, and Southern Europeans (and Africans) travelling through to the UK. The Germans tend to spend more time in France and overstay their welcome.

The number of tourists is not the point of the OP; it was the (French) language problem.

But, the number of tourists to any given country, like Thailand for instance, with it's "promoted" numbers by the TAT (13-14 million) include also the numbers of returning Malaysians and other neighbouring citizens next to the tourists who travel from Thailand to Cambodia/Malaysia/Laos and counted for as individual tourists, every time they set foot (again) on Thai soil.

Those visits are considered facts as they are controlled and counted for by (re-) boarding/entry cards. The real Thai Inbound tourist number is likely closer to 9-10 million rather than 13-14 million

The number of tourists to Europe reach 470-480 million on a yearly basis and of course the number of tourists to France include multiple tourism and/or visits also.

But, the majority of those tourists do NOT speak any other language but their own and certainly most of the tourists do not master any other foreign language, whether it is French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese or Scandinavian language.

But I'm rather safe to claim that there are more mainland European people, managing to make themselves understandable in another European or World country in another language than their fellow native English speaking fellow world tourists.

The native English world citizens (from UK, US/Canada, Australia/NZ and other native English parts of the world) are spoilt (with their English) and lazy when it comes to master any other language but it's also an educational problem.

If the governments of the native English countries do not promote and encourage to study any foreign language, like Spanish (2nd world language after Mandarin with English on #3) who cares ?

The advantages of speaking one or more foreign language is only known to those who master other languages

LaoPo

i may be wrong but i do think there is a good portion of Canadians who speak french, in the USA most of the schools offer french, spanish, german and other languages. I cannot count how many times i have heard that americans dont travel, but the fact is going from nyc to san diego ca. would be the same distance as western europe but everyone speaks english. English is the global language and mastering any other language for a few day stay does not offer that many advantages.

It is fallacious to say that the native-English speakers are not encouraged to speak other languages at school.

Although I was in the science stream at school I had to learn Latin and French. The guys in the Arts stream also had to learn German and/or Greek.

My daughter is a teacher in a UK school - her subjects are Spanish and French.

When I did my military service I was offered either air-radar work, or learning Russian.

I have reasonable language skills in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Swedish and Arabic. Some knowledge of Bahasa Melayu / Indonesian, Thai and Vietnamese.

But everywhere I work I am spoken to by the local staff in English. They want to improve their English language skills more than I want to perfect my other-language skills. They know that their life-style will be better with English and Mandarin in their skills-set.

Quite simply, French, the former diplomatic language, is now limited to France and parts of West Africa. Here in Vietnam no one wants to know. If I get into difficulties with a local, because of lack of communication skills, I will try French as an alternative. It never works. Whereas in Libya, if I had the same problem, I could always use Italian as a second choice.

i may be wrong but i do think there is a good portion of Canadians who speak french, in the USA most of the schools offer french, spanish, german and other languages. I cannot count how many times i have heard that americans dont travel, but the fact is going from nyc to san diego ca. would be the same distance as western europe but everyone speaks english. English is the global language and mastering any other language for a few day stay does not offer that many advantages.

i may be wrong but i do think there is a good portion of Canadians who speak french, in the USA most of the schools offer french, spanish, german and other languages. I cannot count how many times i have heard that americans dont travel, but the fact is going from nyc to san diego ca. would be the same distance as western europe but everyone speaks english. English is the global language and mastering any other language for a few day stay does not offer that many advantages.

No, you're not wrong about Canada; Quebec is the only province in Canada with some 8 million people, predominantly speaking French. The rest of the Canadians don't speak French; at least not many.

Sure, the distance from NYC to San Diego is a huge distance but that has nothing to do with speaking other languages.

You are typically speaking as a native English speaking individual who found it not necessary to speak or learn other languages but if you're born in Europe I assure you it is a VERY BIG advantage to speak several languages, especially when you're doing business and as I said before only people who master several languages know how advantageous it can be.

I could tell you many stories HOW advantageous speaking other languages can be...

LaoPo

It is fallacious to say that the native-English speakers are not encouraged to speak other languages at school.

Although I was in the science stream at school I had to learn Latin and French. The guys in the Arts stream also had to learn German and/or Greek.

My daughter is a teacher in a UK school - her subjects are Spanish and French.

When I did my military service I was offered either air-radar work, or learning Russian.

I have reasonable language skills in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Swedish and Arabic. Some knowledge of Bahasa Melayu / Indonesian, Thai and Vietnamese.

But everywhere I work I am spoken to by the local staff in English. They want to improve their English language skills more than I want to perfect my other-language skills. They know that their life-style will be better with English and Mandarin in their skills-set.

Quite simply, French, the former diplomatic language, is now limited to France and parts of West Africa. Here in Vietnam no one wants to know. If I get into difficulties with a local, because of lack of communication skills, I will try French as an alternative. It never works. Whereas in Libya, if I had the same problem, I could always use Italian as a second choice.

No, it's not fallacious to say that most native English-born (UK, USA/Canada, Australia/NZ and some other areas) speaking people are not encouraged to speak other languages, whether in school or by their various governments since the vast majority of native English speaking people do NOT master any other foreign language.

Sorry, but that's the truth and that you and your family/friends master other languages because of your higher education and circumstances doesn't necessarily mean that most native English speaking people master a second, third or more languages.

If you have any other proof that I'm wrong, I'm all ears and eyes...

The point I was making in the beginning of this most interesting topic about French speaking tourists in Thailand was that the number of French tourists into Thailand is relatively low and probably not surpassing 400/500.000, likely lower versus the 80 million tourists coming to France and of which the vast majority do NOT master any French so the language problem in France is a lot bigger than the French, visiting Thailand, not mastering English as said by the OP.

Yet, so many millions of tourists go to France, the same as some 50 million tourists go to Spain of which the majority is from the UK, Germany and France (more than 35 million combined and more than 70% by air)...BUT........yet...most of those do NOT speak any Spanish but they still manage to enjoy their holidays.

Saludos..

LaoPo

I cannot count how many times i have heard that americans dont travel, but the fact is going from nyc to san diego ca. would be the same distance as western europe but everyone speaks english. English is the global language and mastering any other language for a few day stay does not offer that many advantages.

Sure, the distance from NYC to San Diego is a huge distance but that has nothing to do with speaking other languages.

He never said it did.

You are typically speaking as a native English speaking individual who found it not necessary to speak or learn other languages but if you're born in Europe I assure you it is a VERY BIG advantage to speak several languages, especially when you're doing business and as I said before only people who master several languages know how advantageous it can be.

I could tell you many stories HOW advantageous speaking other languages can be...

I can tell you that there are times as a tourist when speaking the local language just makes it more difficult.

English is the global language and mastering any other language for a few day stay does not offer that many advantages.

Global, it may be. But any advantages are moot, as 75% of situations and locales where English will not be understood and therefore not the universal commonality. For a language that declares itself the accepted lingua franca for the world.....it sure seems to be less understood (it's grandiosity forlorn) than what is to be expected outside of native English-speaking cultures and their satellites.

Might be just as easy to find equal percentage of Chinese speakers the world over.

English is the global language and mastering any other language for a few day stay does not offer that many advantages.

Global, it may be. But any advantages are moot, as 75% of situations and locales where English will not be understood and therefore not the universal commonality. For a language that declares itself the accepted lingua franca for the world.....it sure seems to be less understood (it's grandiosity forlorn) than what is to be expected outside of native English-speaking cultures and their satellites.

Might be just as easy to find equal percentage of Chinese speakers the world over.

I speak spanish and bahasa indo, along with english and some thai. imho a tourist speaking only english will get everything they want in spain, mexico, indo, malay, thailand, hong kong, brazil, etc.... if they only spoke mandarin i do not think the same would be true.

English is the global language and mastering any other language for a few day stay does not offer that many advantages.

Global, it may be. But any advantages are moot, as 75% of situations and locales where English will not be understood and therefore not the universal commonality. For a language that declares itself the accepted lingua franca for the world.....it sure seems to be less understood (it's grandiosity forlorn) than what is to be expected outside of native English-speaking cultures and their satellites.

Might be just as easy to find equal percentage of Chinese speakers the world over.

Chinese speakers? Mandarin? Cantonese? The others? Unlike English, Spanish or French - "Chinese" speakers are mostly limited to China and a few Chinatowns in North America. For God's sake, Russian is understood in more places around the world than Chinese.

English is the global language and mastering any other language for a few day stay does not offer that many advantages.

Global, it may be. But any advantages are moot, as 75% of situations and locales where English will not be understood and therefore not the universal commonality. For a language that declares itself the accepted lingua franca for the world.....it sure seems to be less understood (it's grandiosity forlorn) than what is to be expected outside of native English-speaking cultures and their satellites.

Might be just as easy to find equal percentage of Chinese speakers the world over.

And who was on the moon? A travel distance of millions of kilometers. Did speaking Dutch, Cantonese or some Niger-Congo language help on that trip? Or was 'merican sufficient?

Again consider all this millions of kilometers. God knows how long it was, any Chinese evar went so far?

USA!USA!

English is the global language and mastering any other language for a few day stay does not offer that many advantages.

Global, it may be. But any advantages are moot, as 75% of situations and locales where English will not be understood and therefore not the universal commonality. For a language that declares itself the accepted lingua franca for the world.....it sure seems to be less understood (it's grandiosity forlorn) than what is to be expected outside of native English-speaking cultures and their satellites.

Might be just as easy to find equal percentage of Chinese speakers the world over.

And who was on the moon? A travel distance of millions of kilometers. Did speaking Dutch, Cantonese or some Niger-Congo language help on that trip? Or was 'merican sufficient?

Again consider all this millions of kilometers. God knows how long it was, any Chinese evar went so far?

USA!USA!

Off the top of my head I would say the Moon is about 210k to 220k miles from Earth and that comes in at less than 400,000 kilometers (one way in a direct line - which of course wasn't the flight path).

This site claims the farthest distance the moon reaches from the earth is 406,696 km and the nearest is 363,104 km. The average distance is 384,403 km.

I do not recall any Chinese, Russian, Urdu, Germanic or French speaking nation that has accomplished the goal of placing a man on the moon.

USA!USA!

Link provided to satisfy non-believers... http://www.universetoday.com/38128/distance-from-earth-to-moon/

This site claims the farthest distance the moon reaches from the earth is 406,696 km and the nearest is 363,104 km. The average distance is 384,403 km.

I do not recall any Chinese, Russian, Urdu, Germanic or French speaking nation that has accomplished the goal of placing a man on the moon.

USA!USA!

Link provided to satisfy non-believers... http://www.universet...-earth-to-moon/

Good point, the distance to the Moon isn't constant.

The Soviets apparently landed a probe on the moon.

I do not recall any Chinese, Russian, Urdu, Germanic or French speaking nation that has accomplished the goal of placing a man on the moon.

USA!USA!

Link provided to satisfy non-believers... http://www.universetoday.com/38128/distance-from-earth-to-moon/

Pssst. English is a Germanic language.

And don't forget the importance of the Germans and Nazi rocket technology for the American space program.

I do not recall any Chinese, Russian, Urdu, Germanic or French speaking nation that has accomplished the goal of placing a man on the moon.

USA!USA!

Link provided to satisfy non-believers... http://www.universetoday.com/38128/distance-from-earth-to-moon/

Pssst. English is a Germanic language.

And don't forget the importance of the Germans and Nazi rocket technology for the American space program.

Pssst. How much German was spoken by the men on the moon?

I do not recall any Chinese, Russian, Urdu, Germanic or French speaking nation that has accomplished the goal of placing a man on the moon.

USA!USA!

Link provided to satisfy non-believers... http://www.universetoday.com/38128/distance-from-earth-to-moon/

Pssst. English is a Germanic language.

And don't forget the importance of the Germans and Nazi rocket technology for the American space program.

Pssst. How much German was spoken by the men on the moon?

Yes, that was my point. USA!USA!

And what was the first sentence ever spoken on the moon? In 'merican language, missing an "a".

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/onesmall.asp

There is a large section of Africa which is Francophone, and I have also found it useful speaking to Vietnamese, and Cambodians of a certain age. It used to be the world's diplomatic language, and the speaking of it still imparts a certain aura of civilisation. Not technology, or power politics, but civilisation. (Come on, some French member, back me up!)

May I point out that language, per se, is not particularly useful on the moon.

Off the top of my head I would say the Moon is about 210k to 220k miles from Earth and that comes in at less than 400,000 kilometers (one way in a direct line - which of course wasn't the flight path).

Metric mishap caused loss of NASA orbiter

CNN NASA lost a 125 million Mars orbiter because a Lockheed Martin engineering team used English units of measurement while the agencys team used the more conventional metric system for a key spacecraft operation, according to a review finding released Thursday.

The units mismatch prevented navigation information from transferring between the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft team in at Lockheed Martin in Denver and the flight team at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Lockheed Martin helped build, develop and operate the spacecraft for NASA. Its engineers provided navigation commands for Climate Orbiters thrusters in English units although NASA has been using the metric system predominantly since at least 1990.

...

http://articles.cnn.com/1999-09-30/tech/9909_30_mars.metric.02_1_climate-orbiter-spacecraft-team-metric-system?_s=PM:TECH

Off the top of my head I would say the Moon is about 210k to 220k miles from Earth and that comes in at less than 400,000 kilometers (one way in a direct line - which of course wasn't the flight path).

Metric mishap caused loss of NASA orbiter

CNN NASA lost a 125 million Mars orbiter because a Lockheed Martin engineering team used English units of measurement while the agencys team used the more conventional metric system for a key spacecraft operation, according to a review finding released Thursday.

The units mismatch prevented navigation information from transferring between the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft team in at Lockheed Martin in Denver and the flight team at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Lockheed Martin helped build, develop and operate the spacecraft for NASA. Its engineers provided navigation commands for Climate Orbiters thrusters in English units although NASA has been using the metric system predominantly since at least 1990.

...

http://articles.cnn....stem?_s=PM:TECH

Yes, it's more than about time the Americans got their act together... but I don't see what this has got to do with the French?

May I point out that language, per se, is not particularly useful on the moon.

Language is a virus from outer space. (according to WSB)

May I point out that language, per se, is not particularly useful on the moon.

Language is a virus from outer space. (according to WSB)

Who, which, or what is WSB? He's a right twit, isn't he? Anything more earth-generated than language would be difficult to find.

May I point out that language, per se, is not particularly useful on the moon.

Language is a virus from outer space. (according to WSB)

Who, which, or what is WSB? He's a right twit, isn't he? Anything more earth-generated than language would be difficult to find.

This guy is WSB:

A thinker.

--------

edit to add:

And without language we would never made it to the moon.

There is a large section of Africa which is Francophone, and I have also found it useful speaking to Vietnamese, and Cambodians of a certain age. It used to be the world's diplomatic language, and the speaking of it still imparts a certain aura of civilisation. Not technology, or power politics, but civilisation. (Come on, some French member, back me up!)

May I point out that language, per se, is not particularly useful on the moon.

i'm not French but my first language is French. in the 90s i found a fistful of oldtimers in Ho-Chi-Minh and Vientiane who had a good command of French (in hotels and top restaurants). but by now they must be all retired.

May I point out that language, per se, is not particularly useful on the moon.

Language is a virus from outer space. (according to WSB)

Who, which, or what is WSB? He's a right twit, isn't he? Anything more earth-generated than language would be difficult to find.

This guy is WSB:

A thinker.

I can think of a lot of better (or worse) names for him than that.

--------

And without language we would never made it to the moon.

True, but it wasn't much use when we got there.