I'll be completely honest and say that I am very intimidated about traveling oversees because of the language barriers. It's one of the reasons I haven't travelled outside of the US. Also, being a bit paranoid (as noted by DGma in another thread
) I would be afraid that people would laugh at me when I made a mistake (maybe it's because I spend so much time around children
). But, I do agree that I think it would be better to, at the very least, make an attempt to learn the common courtesy words.
We have a lot of foreign visitors in DC and for some reason people frequently stop and ask me for directions. I'm not sure why I get singled out, my husband is much better at giving directions than I am. I guess I seem approachable
. Anyway, I am always enchanted when they try to speak English and I am much more willing to get David to help them when they do.