grr.... I live in Toronto right now going to school, the place i'm living in is a sort of student residence downtown, we all have our own rooms, but we share the library and we have a buffet style lunch/dinner/breakfast...

Not so bad at all... but we also have four germans living in the building.... they seem like nice people sure enough... but i can't stand them for one reason.

THEY SPEAK GERMAN!

which is understandable, they are from germany of course... but i know for a fact they speak fluent english as well. sure they stutter every once and a while or mis understand a word here or there... it's hard to understand and learn a new language....

my biggest gripe tho... they speak german infront of me and others in the building. My god... how rude is that? If your in private and want to talk to your german pals, go nuts, but if your in a room full of english speaking people eating dinner all around you, don't speak german to your friend next to you... it's kinda rude i think.

we have asian's too, chinese, japanese, we have people from the middle east and from europe... as well as north and south america, but they all speak english, granted they again may not speak it well, but they are learning and at least giving it an effort, trying to blend in with a mostly english speaking enviroment.

but these germans don't catch on... they drone on and on during dinner in german while there are several english speaking people sitting right beside and across from them at the table.

If you come to a country like Canada to learn, learn the languages! your not going to get very far if you don't know some english in a mostly english country. I would understand more if they were just learning english, but when they first moved in, they were speaking perfect english.... but they rarely do speak it in front of others.

I'm sorry, but i just think it's rude to do that.... i'm not saying all germans are like this, or anyone else... I juat think that if you can speak the language of a country, you should speak it rather then use your own language... again, i can understand if the other person they are talking to did not know a word of english... but when all four of them can speak fluent english... no...just no.

[edited for some spelling...]

It's not rude. Stop trying to ease drop.

Eh, I guess I'm a rude person if I don't want other people than my family knowing what I'm saying. Take the chance to learn a little bit of German.

Yeah, it sure is rude that they have a conversation by themselves in the language they're most comfortable with. It's their fault that you like sticking your nose in other people's business. Damn them. Send them on a raft back home to their Jew-hating country.

Really, grow up. Unless you're involved in the conversation, it's not rude at all.

lol you think the middle eastern and asian people and all other races talk english? If you do, you either haven't seen the rest of the population of Toronto, meaning you're strictly downtown... Or you live inside a shell.

I agree with you on the point that, if they're going to come to an english speaking country, they should talk english. I dont mind in their own home, but it annoys the hell out of me too when I'm standing by a bunch of chinese or middle eastern people yammering away in their language. If you don't wanna speak english, fine, just go back to your own country and do it.

At my school people will often drop into polish to talk to someone, sometimes cutting right through the conversation. Cutting me off is rude, cutting me off in another language is more rude, cutting me off to insult me (In the way that friends insult each other) in another language is punishable by death.

[Edit: And it's "Eavesdrop" ;)]

German sounds cooler than English anyway.

GRAMMER NAZIIIIIII!

JUST BECAUSE I'M GERMAN AND HATE JEWS DOESN'T MEAN I'M A NAZI!

Spelling, actually.

They are obviously talking about you Grant

I don't see the big deal. There are two Italian girls who live at my house and they speak in Italian at times. They aren't doing it to be rude. They could also be doing it to keep tabs on their native language, you know

If you moved to Germany, you wouldn't start speaking German to all your friends and family when you know that both of you can speak better English.

Oops, your a racist! Congratulations.

Canada is well known as a multicultural mozaic. In my political science course, we learn about being a "hyphanated-Canadian", basically because when you come to Canada you can retain a lot of your home culture and heritage. This is not the melting pot that some would claim our neighbours in the south to be. Hell, you are living in Toronto, you should know this! I live in Prince George (aka the Hillbilly Capital of the North) and we don't get all up tight about people wanting to speak something other than English.

Our school has lots of different people who speak lots of different languages. Who cares? I'm not so close minded that I demand they "learn to speak Canadian". They can speak what ever they want, its their right.

I'm also relativly sure that if the German students wanted you to know what they are talking about, they would address it to you in English. And unless you routinely hear your name mentioned, it probably doesn't concern you.


Well then in all rights, they should learn to speak English and French. Would you be making a big deal if they dared to speak French in your precence? Besides, by your own testimony, they do speak English. If they choose not to, then they don't have to. That's what happens when you don't have facsist thug squads beating up people who are different.

People's other cultures are something you should appreciate. That includes language. If it is so upsetting to you that you can't understand what they are saying, maybe you should learn German.

Also consider that maybe you should be a little less ignorant towards people from other countries. Or maybe we should just force those Jack-Boots to go back to Germany if they don't like speaking your master-language? Yeah, that'd be a solution...

Mort pretty much wins.

It's still annoying to him, and it well within HIS rights to be annoyed, and to complain as much as he wants.

I know a girl that speaks polish, and she knows a few people that speak it as well.. .and the only time it pisses me off is when I KNOW she's talking some smack about me.

Whoa-hoa! What's this here? Tenants? Roommates? Deeper than that? :p

One: Did you say you couldn't understand what they were saying and ask them to speak English if they were talking to you?
Two: If you go to France or someplace with your friends and can all speak the country's language, would you?
Three: Did you eat paint chips as a child?

dammit, i had a long post ready to type but was not logged in and lost it....

but the gist of it is, I'm not saying forget your language completly.

if you are in a in a private room or are by your selves on the other side of a room, basicly alone... speak german if it's comfortable to you. But when you are in a group of people and they all speak english, I find it very rude to suddenly break into german while the others are speak english.

going back to the many senarios posted, Yes, if I could speak german and was in germany, I would speak german while with the other germans, if i was with a friend who also spoke german i would speak german while other germans were around. if we were in privte, say a booth in a restraunt or in a car just the two of us, i'd speak english.

Is it an insecurity thing, or what? I'm just trying to figure out why it annoys you so much.

Maybe you're unconsciously scared that they could be talking about you.

German sounds really cool. I like the sounds.

I'm confused too.

It's their native language, if they were speaking German to you it'd be totally different.

++

(I believe this is the first time I've agreed with Obi up there.)

It's only rude if someone who didn't speak German was trying to be part of the conversation but the four wouldn't say anything in English. Otherwise they're just four friends talking to each other, the only reason you notice is because they're talking in a way that you don't understand. You hate not being able to understand everything don't you? :p

Yay!!

German rocks!!!

I'm sure this has been said already, but it's no more rude than you speaking English in Germany. As a matter of fact, many adult Germans speak English around Americans out of politeness, even if those present speak German anyway. If anything, YOU should be learning German for THEM. :p

And German does sound cooler than English.

I talk behind english people's backs in french and behind french people's backs in english. :p

Almost everyday I walk on the street and see a couple of people speaking a foreign language I don't understand. I don't need to understand what they're saying, I'm just glad there's variety in culture.

I have friends who get pissed when people adress them in english. Now -that- is justified. Even then, they don't get mad if the guy just goes "I'm sorry, do you speak english?". Then, they just send them my way!

Like someone said, this is canada. You'll find more cultures and languages here than anywhere else. If you get annoyed by that and you want the 'assimilate or die' attitude, maybe you should move down south.

Britain is quite bad at languages. I think Britons have the worst exam result for foreign languages in any in Europe. Europeans usually speak three languages (especially Eastern Europeans, who have to speak their language, Russian, and English), and Britons have trouble speaking one..

It's quite sad, really.

Having said that, it would make sense to devise a single world language, something akin to Esperanto, only less Spanish. The EU could certainly create a committee of linguists to debate the most useful features of languages (conjugation, compounding, the like) and then respective governments could slowly 'push' those features into their languages.

But especially with the internet, I imagine foreign words are going to come into the English language much quicker, so different languages will end up blending a lot more anyway.

OMG, Missing my point....

I know Canada prides it self on being a multi-cultral country, I know that people don't speak english and I don't demand they do, I just think that it's rude of them to speak their native language while in a group of people in public when the restof the group cannot speak german.

i don't care if someone walking down the street speaks french/german/turkish/spanish or whatever, there is room for 8 people at the head table in my building, four of those seats have been taken by the foru germans. The other four people are sitting at the same table, the germans are not situated right beside each other, on german could be at the other end of the table and he was talking in german to his friend, they are mixed in with english speaking people.

And i think it's rude.

Don't you dare to think you know me because of my opinions, when i was younger I was not the skinniest kid around, hell i'm still a bit chunky, i know what it's like to be excluded from things, to be made fun of and to the butt of jokes. I don't like other's having to go through the same thing I did because of their skin color or the language they speak. pulling the racist card is harsh and presumptuous of you think think of me as a racist because i happen to think it's rude for someone in a group to speak a language the others cannot understand.

If it was a private conversation, I don't want you saying it across the table while other want to have a conversation in english, not only do i find it rude, i find that it's kind of anti-social in the way that coming to a new country is tough, you need to make new friends, migling with the english speaking students and talking to them in english helps a hell of alot.

Again, if they could not speak english at all, it's diffrent, but they CAN speak englsih, I have heard them speak english to the admissions people and the people at the front desk, but theu rarely do speak it.

If they learned English, surely you can learn German.

ERROR. BAD LOGIC. YOUR HEAD ASPLODE.

Living in an English speaking country, he should learn German to understand immigrants? Right.

Yes, it is no more rude than speaking English in Germany, which somehow negates the rudeness how?

I voted 'meh' because thats exactly what I thought when I got to the meat of your complaint.

We don't want them, those freedom hating fascists.

Wow, I'm praying that's sarcasm.

A few friends and I go to get one of our other friends (who is spanish). It starts raining heavy while we're there, so we don't leave right away. While we're waiting, this friend starts speaking, in spanish, with his mom. At first, it seems a little rude, but then it became more like a game. "gibberish, gibberish, gibberish, Star Wars-" "Hey, I knew that one!"

No, see it's an "assimilate or die" attitude if it's an American, it's a "perseveration of our heritage" attitude if it's a Franco-Canadian.

English is the language of business, if you're in place where English is the primary language (or one of them), you speak it. If you don't adhere to this word.. I will kill you and eat your babies. MAUAHAHAHAH.

I don't want to sound offensive, but it is my goal in life is to eridicate the german language...

The first clause contradicts with the second. I blame the inferior English language.