Tell us about the countries you have visited.

[Koa]

Emily - I wouldn't worry about not speaking the language, at least not in Italy. I've been amazed at how many people speak english, and the number seems to increase with every visit.

That's a big news to me. We're the least English-literate country in Europe, together with France and Spain... Though sure people working in touristic areas do know English... but if you stop a random guy on the street to ask for directions, I'm not sure of how much English you'd get out of it... but we are so good at communicating with gestures

The language thing shouldn't be a block in travelling...I think some people like Emily are more blocked by the fact of being American, therefore people will think that they know only English because they are Americans and don't feel the need to learn more... But really, noone would blame you too much if you are in a country for just a few days... moreover, English is indeed quite widely spoken around the world... I'm definitely not diminishing the importance of languages, as you well know that they are my only true passion, but on the other hand I won't be stopped going to a place because I don't know their language. I've lived in Hungary for 6 months and I've learnt only basic Hungarian (and at teh beginning we did order food without having a clue of what we were going to get!)... and that made me feel almost disrespectful at times cos I was living there (though their language is so hellish that they don't really expect you to know it)... and I always try to learn at least how to say Thanks in a place I visit... but well, the point of travelling is learning about a place, even about their languages...

Another great thing about living in Europe is that travelling is relatively cheap... there are a lot of cheap flights companies, which are the reason why I travel so much... and I have friends in many places so most of the time I don't have to spend money on accomodation... On the other hand, I haven't been to other continents and I'm not planning on doing it soon, because of the distance and the cost... there is so much to do in lovely Europe anyway, that I'm certainly not bored...

[Xamonas Chegwe]

I would agree with Koa. I have been to Italy many times. Compared to other European countries, there is very little English spoken.

If you want to visit a European country where most people do speak English, I would recommend the following:

Great Britain & Ireland. (Obviously!)
Greece. (Especially Athens and the more popular islands.)
Belgium. (The northern, Flemish speaking parts predominantly.)
Holland. (Almost everyone speaks German & English fluently - certainly the young.)
Germany. (Not as many English speakers as some of those above, but a lot more than in Italy.)
Austria & (the Germanic parts of) Switzerland. Similar to Germany.
Scandinavia. (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland & Iceland all have large numbers of fluent English speakers.

A lot of the former Soviet block countries have many English speakers as well. But keep to the major towns and tourist areas.

France, Italy and Spain are all difficult for those with none of the local language. But it really doesn't take much to learn enough for asking directions and making small purchases in shops. And all of the main tourist places are full of information centres with English speaking staff.

Please don't let the 'language barrier' put you off travelling.

[Petrarch's Love]

Wow, I'm so impressed by some of the travel accounts in these forums. Xamonas, what's your favorite destination from the long list you provided?

I love to travel when I get the chance. I've been across the border to Canada a few times and been on brief trips to England, Austria, and Switzerland. I've also been to France a few times--once for a month long language program including three weeks on the lovely cote d'azure--and I studied in Italy for four months,which I loved. I was staying with an Italian woman in charming Siena (right near Florence), and got a chance to really emerse myself in the language as well as travel around the country. I got a chance to go back to Tuscany for a few weeks with a friend this past summer and I was in heaven!

Emily, you'd probably find it funny that I actually sometimes had a hard time finding people who were willing to speak the language with me in Italy (especially in more touristy areas like Florence). Part of it may have been that I'm blonde and no one expected me to know Italian from my appearance (everyone in Austria would launch into German with me, assuming I was a native, even though I don't have a word off that language). I would have these silly conversations sometimes where I would speak to say, a waiter at a restraunt only in Italian and he would only respond in English. It seems they wanted to practice their English just as much as I wanted to practice my Italian, which I found amazing. As everyone else here said, absolutely do not let language be a barrier to travel. Pick up a few key phrases when you get a chance to go somewhere (or maybe even take a basic language class nights at your local city college), and smile and gesture your way through the rest.

[Xamonas Chegwe]

Wow, I'm so impressed by some of the travel accounts in these forums. Xamonas, what's your favorite destination from the long list you provided?

Wherever I happen to be usually.

I have a special fondness for Greece and Iceland. I would probably put them up at the top somewhere. But there are so many places I haven't seen yet, so my real favourite could be anywhere!

I agree about the 2-sided conversations. I tried to learn Greek for years with the same trouble: "Yia sou, ti kaneis?", "Very well thank you, how are you?" It really makes it hard to learn, especially to learn to understand the spoken language. I learnt more from watching English/US films with Greek sub-titles over there than anything else!

[emily655321]

It seems they wanted to practice their English just as much as I wanted to practice my Italian, which I found amazing.

I know what you're saying, I've run into a bit of that, myself. Particularly when I was in France, I found that most of the people were delighted (and probably pretty amused ) by my attempts to speak French, but were more than happy to supplement the conversation with some English of their own. The most unnerving part was standing in lines, talking with my mother about how much time/money we had left, or where we were going to eat, etc., and realizing that everyone around us had stopped talking, so they could listen. It's a weird feeling, when you're not used to being out of your own country.

[Virgil]

That's a big news to me. We're the least English-literate country in Europe, together with France and Spain... Though sure people working in touristic areas do know English... but if you stop a random guy on the street to ask for directions, I'm not sure of how much English you'd get out of it... but we are so good at communicating with gestures

Hmm, I was startled with how many people spoke english in Italy. I mean it wasn't everyone, perhaps one out ten (to pull a figure out of the air), but that struck me as a lot. I guess then the rest of Europe is even easier to get around.

Communicating with gestures? Do you mean profane gestures or clean gestures? I know those Italians.

[SleepyWitch]

BTW, I have an opportunity for a business conference in Berlin at the end of May. I haven't decided whether to go, but, in the event that I do go, does anyone who's been to Berlin have any advice on how to spend a day if I was able to break free. Or how about evenings? How hard is it to get around without knowing any German?

Hey Virgil you shouldn't have any trouble getting around without knowing any German. Everybody in Germany has to study English.. some people might be reluctant to speak it (because they feel their English isn't good enough!) or might pretend not to understand it... well, there might be a slight problem in the eastern part of Berlin seeing as it was part of the GDR, where they studied Russian instead of English...
well, at least as far as talking to people is concerned there shouldn't be any problem, but to figure out things like public transport, signposts and stuff, you might need to ask colleagues or passerby for help...

edit: countries I've been to:
Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia (day trip to Bratislava), Greece, Italy, France (Paris; Provence), England (lived there for 9 months), Scotland, Wales, Sweden, Mongolia
my fave's so far have been Mongolia and, of course, the UK. if you ever get the opportunity to live in another country, seize it! you can learn so much more about a country and it's people when you actually live there...

[Whifflingpin]

"Everybody in Germany has to study English.. some people might be reluctant to speak it (because they feel their English isn't good enough!) or might pretend not to understand it..."
Ho ho - I had to hire a car once to go to Frankfurt. I don't speak German, but I learnt enough to ask for a car, until Wednesday, and so on, which was good, because the owner did not speak a word of English. Somehow, however, he managed to learn fluent English in four days, because when I got back, he was happy to chat in English.

I agree with those who say that ignorance of a language should not be a barrier to travelling - learning the few necessary words is part of the fun.("thankyou," "good/beautiful," "where from?" "where to?" "how much?" were the essential phrases for hitch-hiking (autostop) abroad when I was a student.) A smile and friendly gestures will carry you a long way.

My list is not as extensive as Xamonas' - Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey, USA (Washington, Philadelphia) Brasil (Sao Paulo) Mexico and Greece.

Pensive first asked for our impressions of other countries, rather than mere lists. Overall, I think I have been constantly surprised by the helpfulness of people towards strangers.
Late one night, in Turkey, I was stopped by a policeman, and had visions of being thrown into a Turkish jail for vagabondage, but after a few minutes chat (in French) he saved me the effort of hitch-hiking by stopping every car that passed, until there was one going my way. Not that autostop was hard in Turkey, I was walking along, minding my own business, when a bus stopped next to me. "Para yok" I said ("no money") but the passengers just laughed, pulled me aboard and gave me a lift to the next town.
In the US, my colleague was irritated by the constant expressions of helpfulness, which he thought were meaningless hypocrisy. I found them to be literal truth. "Can I help you, sir" "Well, the music is a bit loud" Moments later the music was turned down.
Or, in a restaurant, "I'm sorry, sir, we don't have any grapefruit juice," but minutes after, there was the grapefruit juice that they'd gone out to buy, just for me.

So, next I'd better take up Pensive's challenge and visit Asia. I saw on television a month or so ago that they were stripping the fabulous blue tiles off the roofs in Samarkhand, and yesterday the Golden Mosque was destroyed - I must hurry, while there is still anything left.

.

[ClaesGefvenberg]

I love tourism. I think that many people does. Have you ever been out of your country? How did you find the world outside? Did you enjoy or did you hate that experience?

Traveling is definitely one of my favourite pastimes. It also connects well with some other interests of mine: Languages and photography. Besides, I'm generally interested in people and different cultures.

I had to give this some thought. I think this list is fairly accurate, but I may have missed a few:

Norway, Denmark, Finland, Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Spain Italy, Bulgaria, Tunisia, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Thailand, Kenya...

I have enjoyed them all for different reasons, so I will refrain from naming any favourites. I will however tell you about the most gratifying trip: When I was a child I dreamt about going to Africa to see the wildlife there. I honestly never thought it would happen. In the 60's, going to Africa as a tourist was considered nigh on impossible unless you happened to be filthy rich, which I am not... And yet, I have been there, and found it even more impressive than I thought it would be. To top it all I also met some increadibly nice people.

Yes, fulfilling your childhood dream is very gratifying... I recommend it

/Claes

[simon]

Belize is a fun place. Alot of Mayans live there and some of the history found in the Mayan ruins is amazing, like the ball courts. There are these courts used for some type of ball game that really important to the political, social, education, and theatrical aspect of the society, only nobody knows what the rules to the game were. Belize is hear Guatemala, which I think is active right now, but they have rainforest and tropical beaches on the Cayes off the coastline. The people are great and depending where you go, it's a tiny tiny poor country with no real export value, people speak Mayan or some sort of pigeon langauge kind of like Creole, where they use english words but they all mean something completely different. I had a colourful adventure there running around snorkling and such, it's a great place to learn.

[Pensive]

So, next I'd better take up Pensive's challenge and visit Asia. I saw on television a month or so ago that they were stripping the fabulous blue tiles off the roofs in Samarkhand, and yesterday the Golden Mosque was destroyed - I must hurry, while there is still anything left.

You should visit Asian countries. You would not regret it. I am sometimes, so much surprized by the difference of culture and traditions between Eurpion and Asian society. And the odd thing is that I find most of the Eurpion countries very much alike. (I might be wrong but my limited study of different countries teach me that) while on the other hand, an Asian country is extremely different from the other Asian country. It is difficult to travel in Asia.

[sdr4jc]

um...i've been to the grand canyon...

[Matilda]

Okay. I've been to:

Denmark ( lot's of times, my grandparents live about an hour from the border)
Germany (mainly diving through)
Turkey (Side and Marmaris)
Greece (Crete)
Spain (Tenerife and Mallorca)
England (London and Devon)
Czech Republic
Belgium and Netherlands (just driving through and stopping for an ice-cream!)
France (Normandie, Paris and Languedoc)

France was my absolute favorite, and England of course. It was the first place I went by myself.

I'm going to Scotland in the Easter holidays, so I'll celebrate my 16th birthday there.

[Pensive]

Hey Matila, You have also been to a lot of places. Good luck in France and may you enjoy a lot!

[myself]

hello, i am an arab. i live in england and all i go to is to my country (syria) and to england. when i was 1 year till 4 me and my parent went all over Asia, maldives, malysia, india and i was born in pakistan!!!!! but i cant really remember anything of it. i can tell u more about syria.

it is in the middle east and it is a very hot country. the houses there have no roofs and the floor is concrete. i love going there, it is so koooooooooooool. shopping is so fun!!!!!!