Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa writes about Estonians’ “most annoying habit”: to not let the well-meaning foreigners like him practice their Estonian – by speaking the foreigners’ native tongues in reply.
Cancel this reply
See all those languages up there? We translate Global Voices stories to make the world's citizen media available to everyone.
Learn more about Lingua Translation »Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa writes about Estonians’ “most annoying habit”: to not let the well-meaning foreigners like him practice their Estonian – by speaking the foreigners’ native tongues in reply.
1 comment
That’s an annoying habit in all countries, but in some countries (e.g. Estonia) there are a particularly large number of people with this annoying habit! People from the Netherlands have an annoying habit of replying in English or another language when you address them in Dutch.
Although it’s very good that the standard of foreign languages in Estonia is very high, it means that there are more people who will use their foreign language skills inappropriately (e.g. replying in English when asked a question in perfectly understandable Estonian)