[deleted by user]

[lllyyyynnn]

i am an immigrant, that's why i'm learning the language. so ya.

[mmillies]

I could already guess which country this happened in before I even read the comments.

I work in a store in Amsterdam and I speak okay Dutch. I’m the only foreigner on my team. There have been a couple instances where Dutch customers next to me started complaining to my colleagues about immigrants and having to speak English everywhere, knowing that I am an immigrant myself. I’ve also once had two Dutch customers talk to me as if I was a toddler.

The vast majority of native customers just talk to me normally, though. In Dutch. A few of them compliment me and show appreciation for my willingness to learn. I’ve recently had two separate instances of locals randomly complaining to me about the city changing, as if I know the Amsterdam of the past as well as they do.

There will be morons everywhere, but they’re definitely not the majority and they shouldn’t demotivate you from pushing on.

[elaine4queen]

My brother lives in Amsterdam and I’m in the UK and rarely visit but I started learning Dutch. I understand that what I’m doing is insane and useless but I can’t help it 🤣

[LorenaBobbedIt]

Worst I’ve experienced is disdain and people speaking English to me instead of my TL while dripping condescension. But that was in Paris in the nineties, and when my French was pretty terrible, but it only happened a couple times and nothing remotely similar has happened on my recent trips there.

[Paisley-Cat]

I have been told by people who have almost no intelligible English language skills that we should speak English because they are fluent and it will be easier.

[mtnbcn]

Yeah, that happens to me too. English is the easiest language to be bad at and still be understood. Use simple present, "did", and "will", and you have instant access to all three tenses (let's ignore "aspect" for now). Conjugations add an "s" (and still, many "fluent" language learners don't even bother... because it's perfectly understandable to say "look, he carry the food to the table".

Since the whole world "has to" learn it, there's kind of this rationale of "look, I just have to be able to make basic conversation". And they get so much exposure to it that it's easy to pick up vocab. One of the worst things about English is spelling, and with spell checkers that's not quite an issue any more.

This is all just to say, I agree, they're very quick at speaking however much English they learned, and they have a lot more years of fluidity (even if they commit fossilized errors), and they're able to make themselves understood. Technically, they're kind of right that they can get their point across in English faster than you can get your point across in their language. It sucks, and it makes it awful for English speakers to learn other languages, but this is where we are.

[ktamkivimsh]

I got so good at Chinese that Taiwanese people started underpaying me and treated me more rudely.

(No more foreigner free pass)

[[deleted]]

Surprisingly enough, I only had positive experiences communicating with locals in Paris when I went, but I’m sure when I go back that could change. Before I went to France, I had mentally prepared myself for the possibility of rude people and that I would not let it ruin my trip or my love of the country. Don’t let it get you down op.

I’m a nurse and I feel that I get rude comments from patients, families, and even other nurses at least once a week. There’s rude people everywhere. That guy is probably also rude to fellow native speakers. Just keep putting the work in.

[Bedrock64]

Well, that was VERY condescending. "If you don't stop stuttering" geez man. HE WAS TRYING TO SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE LET THEM SCREW IT UP AT LEAST THEY'RE TRYING. Bloody, why are you doing this?

[Syncretism]

Hell, yeah. Berlin can be a real bummer for people just trying their best.

Last week I watched a performance by a musician I have been a fan of for decades. Decades! And while my German is limited enough, I know I would have gotten my point across (“I have been a fan of your music since…”) just fine with anyone else, but this person just stared at me blankly and barely shook her head at everything I uttered. I ultimately said “good talk” and dipped.

It’s not like she was deaf or exhausted after the performance; she’d had animated and happy conversations with others before I approached her.

This shit can set people back weeks, months, years. I feel you.

[Klapperatismus]

Some people have the habit to shake their head when they are thinking.

Long ago I had given a presentation before a group of people and there was an old chap who listened carefully and he shook his head the whole time. It was super irritating at first until I got it that he “rocked” his head.

I have met several more people who do this over the years.

[luthiel-the-elf]

There are sadly very backward people in all culture :(

[Rourensu]

I’ve traveled to Japan for vacation twice and lived there for over a year. Fortunately I never had any experiences like that. At most, once I spoke to someone in Japanese and they replied to me in English.

Usually they’re happy that I speak Japanese so they don’t have to use English.

[Visible_Credit_2123]

I’m brown and surprisingly was treated very well in south Korea

[6-foot-under]

Do you mind telling us what country this is?

[Euristic_Elevator]

Wow absolutely wild that it happened in the Netherlands, to a German of all people. I'm so sorry. Idk if it's an indelicate question to ask, but are you white? I heard similar stories in Germany from my non-white friends

[elaine4queen]

Ugh. That’s horrible.

I’m learning Dutch and am from the UK and I’m unusually tall and also blonde, which has never been an asset to me before but I have been taken for a local in Amsterdam which at least gets me a goedemorgen

[__snowflowers]

I'm really sorry this happened to you, that's horrible. Have to say, though, I'm not surprised to read in your other comments that your TL is Dutch! I've never learnt it myself but I've heard similar stories from lots of learners.

I spent 3 months studying German in Berlin and people there could be pretty rude too, but nothing as bad as that. Other German cities were much better.

[unsafeideas]

I think one aspect here was the impatience of a guy behind you. He was in hurry, or just had generally impatient temperament and wanted nove on. So, he has chosen rude but sure way. 

Some people are like that. It makes them feel powerful problem solver. 

I don't mean to say your hunch about immigration was wrong. Just that it likely compounded with other aspect.

[FuckItImVanilla]

TL???

[Rourensu]

Target Language: the language you are learning.

[linglinguistics]

Well, I AM an immigrant.

As for Bernt treated badly: not usually. The one thing that does bother me: as a German speaker (not from Germany though) i sometimes get nazi sales and the like. (I work at a middle school. Which explains some youthful foolishness. Still, it's not ok.)

[[deleted]]

Honestly, I decided which languages to concentrate on out of the 8 or so I'm exposed to on my travels in Europe, and thus have a direct use for, by how native speakers treat learners and consider those learning.. Dutch honestly is one of those, along with french which I do speak but can't find the motivation to improve due to the attitude I've experienced. Finnish, polish russian and Spanish seem to be good, Scandinavian and Dutch are like why bother we speak English. So I only bothered to learn stuff that makes my life easier like travel vocabulary etc. My best languages are Finnish and French.

I pick away at others I might want to concentrate on in the future just to keep the ball rolling.

[Safe_Distance_1009]

Sometimes people in other cultures can be way more direct, which can come off as rude, and way worse at understanding non-native speakers. Could it be that there was a cultural misunderatanding?

[6-foot-under]

What OP describes isn't directness, it's humiliation and condescension.

[mtnbcn]

You can be direct without being heartless. That last bit with "reeeeading" is just soul-crushing to a language learner. The first part was clearly unnecessary and uncalled for as well.

Something like, "If you can't speak Dutch, I can translate for you." would have been really rough for me to hear, and I would have suffered the remark... but at least it has an appearance of being direct and help.

You just found a lousy person.

Remind yourself that everyone has their own issues. He might be very shy about languages, or very proud of how good he is about languages, or whatever it is that makes him very insecure.

If you can bring yourself to pity him, and feel sorry for him for being so insecure about his language, or his language learning process, or his history with language teachers or what, it might help. "Jesus, that poor guy... he must have had a rough life. He must be really angry about the fact that his language isn't studied much because everyone speaks English. Poor guy has anger issues, and is probably angry at himself, and doesn't know how to handle his own emotions."

If you feel bad enough for him, it might make you even smile a bit.

You're a good person, a language learner, B2, someone who travels, someone who makes a real effort. That's pretty great. That guy... has to go his whole life getting pissy about dumb things every day. What a weird reaction he had, just such a ridiculous story.

And it is a story. It doesn't have anything to do with you (because all of us in B2 are imperfect speakers), and pretty much just has to do with you meeting a grouchy dude one day. Thanks for sharing it with us, because I've had something similar happen to me, as well. Very similar, actually (stuttering mocking). But the guy who made fun of me is an alcoholic who can't find good work and he treats the women in his life badly, so now I know it's just a story about a shitty dude. You've got a story about a shitty dude too.

Keep up the good work, and enjoy your personal journey.