Learning Language Options - English French Hebrew Welsh and other languages

England's Department of Education is paying more than £500,000 a year to schools which have large populations needing help learning to speak English. Could they do this more cheaply or quickly?

Berlitz Earworms - For Adults Travelling

Berlitz teaches by immersion. Repetition.

For adults going on holiday. No grammar. I use Earworms discs, which I play in the car on long journeys. Listen to conversations, starting on a plane, between a man and a woman and an air hostess. You can buy old copies second hand on Ebay for half a dozen languages. I bought several languages.

Linguaphone

I have also used Linguaphone discs for Spanish. They tell a story about a woman who speaks no Spanish being sent to Spain by her boss.

Duolingo's Free Courses Online

Duolingo has free language courses in many languages for children as well as adults. Each section of lessons has a guidebook, a grammar section, which gives you examples of different verbs, I you he she we they. starting with the present tense. Because they shared the school system, and flashcards, then withdrew them, it's good to save any system even if it is online, and free, in case the producers, decide it is not profitable, or they sell the system and it gets withdrawn.

Translation

Google translate covers most languages. You can play back the translation to hear the pronunciations. 

Learning Together - Buddies

If two children speak the same language, they can pair up and learn English together for a term. 

Learning By Teaching - Mentors

If two children speak different languages, they can pair up, using English as their mutual language.

Useful Travel Websites And Guides About Learning Languages

Wikitravel (with advertisements) and 

Wikivoyage (without advertisements) have phrasebooks for travellers. 

Creating School Workbooks

It should be possible to put together a standard workbook for all the world's main 50 languages. Call in the church, mosque, embassy, to  fast track a simple textbook and enrol volunteer teachers from students and the retired. And/or weekend and after school immersion classes.

Copying Other Countries

See how other countries cope.

American Schoolbooks & Simplified Spelling 

Printer Webster revised spelling for immigrants to the USA, publishing school textbooks and the dictionary. The schoolbooks must be out of copyright and can be reprinted and reused, in the USA - and the UK. Even if children in the UK learn American spelling, that is a big advance on not being able to speak English.

Family Group Teaching & Learning

Parents should attend classes with their children for half an hour after school every day.

How about getting older brothers and sisters to help the smaller ones? We may have to go back to the village school system, where brothers and sisters are in the same class, with the older ones helping the younger ones. 

Israel's Ulpans 

In Israel in 1948 Ulpans were set up to teach Hebrew to immigrants. Newcomers came from the Arab countries, Europe and elsewhere. Some centres were in Jerusalem. 

Uplans were in residential centres. Courses lasted about 5 months. Other centres were scattered around the countryside on the kibbutzim, collective farms. There the students were part time workers, part time students. 

This system has been copied in Wales, Scotland and elsewhere, such as Norway. In Wales the spelling of Ulpan is Welsh, Wlpan.

Flag of Wales with the red dragon on white and green.

America has bilingual schools.

Canada has French and English mandatory in government jobs and literature in the capital.

England used to have a bilingual school, the Lycee Francaise, for those whose parents spoke French.

Singapore has mother tongue schools for pupils whose parents speak the national languages (English, Chinese (Mandarin), Tamil (from southern India) and Malay.

French Schools in the UK

London​

L’école bilingue​

École française de Londres Jacques Prévert 

L’École des Petits & L’École de Battersea ​

La Petite École Française ​

Collège Français Bilingue de Londres ​(CFBL)​

EIFA International School London ​

Jeannine Manuel School ​

Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle de Londres ​

Lycée International de Londres Winston Churchill​​

Bristol​

École française de Bristol ​

Aberdeen​

École Française d’Aberdeen​

Useful Websites On Language Teaching

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15553095/schools-local-authorities-non-English-speaking-kids-speed.html

Ulpan Studio Of (Hebrew Language) Instruction

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulpan

Welsh Language Teaching

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wlpan

Scottish Language teaching

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%99lpan

https://www.institut-francais.org.uk/education-page/find-a-french-school/#/

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Why you should be bilingual - better still a polyglot.

Four language signpost, English, Chinese, Malay.

 "A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep."

So said Alexander Pope, a poet, born in 1688, died 1744. 

I am going to tell you about time, days off, and thank you.

When you hear people trying to speak English, do you sometimes think, how good of them to try so hard. 

Do you ever think foreigners are charming, but crazy, half wits? 

What's worse, if you try to help them and understand them, you can see from the expression on their face,  They think you are a crazy half wits!

I thought of that when I arrived late on holiday, and kept 20 hikers waiting.

German flag

'Wilkommen. Welcome. You are one hour late,' said the German speaking leader of the hikers, on my hiking holiday. 'I told you half nine. Halb neun.'

'Yes,' I said, 'It’s half past nine.' 

'Nein. No! Half nine is eight hours and thirty minutes. A quarter to in English is 15 minutes before. And halb neun is half an hour before nine."

We looked it up. The Germans say half nine, when the English speakers, you and me, would say half past eight.

A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep.

I think the German should learn and speak English, which is the most widely spoken first and second language in the world, closely followed by Chinese and Spanish, both of which I am learning. Spanish is the easiest language for English speakers. Chinese is the most difficult.

UK flag

In Singapore, many people are bilingual. They speak English as a second language.

I am learning German, because once a year I meet up with this hiking group. I am using Duolingo, which claims to be the most widely used language system in the world. I have signed up for a dozen languages, just to read the first page of handy hints and , and .

Benefits Of Being Bilingual

Apart from avoiding mistranslation mishaps, are there any advantages to learning a second language. Yes. Several.

The first is that being bilingual has been found to postpone the onset of Alzheimers by five years. What is the evidence? Studies have been done amongst contained populations, such as amongst nuns in the USA. 

That's a long  term benefit.

To keep you amused, I will tell you about mistakes I made with mistranslations in Singlish, Spanish,  French, 

Pope also said, to err is human, to forgive divine. 

English is a common language in Singapore. But Singlish sounds the same and is slightly different. 

My Indian Singaporean friend, Jaya, wanted to meet me for lunch. He said to me, 

Flag of Singapore

"I want to talk to you. I'm having an off day."

I said, "If you are not feeling well, see  doctor. I can see you tomorrow."

He replied, "Why should I see a doctor?".

I said, "if you are having an off day, you are depressed."

"I'm not depressed. I am not working. It's my off day.'

I said, "you mean your 'day off.' "

"Yes, that's what I said, 'an off day.' "

"No. Where I come from, an off day, means a bad day, like food which has gone off. The day when you are not working is a day off."

"thank you," he said.

He said it in English.

French flag

I speak French fluently. Many people can recognize the French word for thank you, merci. (which is also thank you in Romanian.).

In France my former babysitter Carolyn offered me tea. 

I said, "merci," - "thank you".

She didn't give me any tea.

Half an hour later, she asked me again, 

"Would you like some tea.? 

I replied, "I did not get any the first time."

She replied, you said merci.

It took us ten minutes to work out that in English, thank you, means thank you, or yes thank you. In French you say yes please or no thank you, so thank you is short for no thank you.

Remember that.

Finally, thanks in two languages.

I shall finish by thanking you in German and Chinese.

German flag

Danke.

 Shay shay.

800-1000 words

Useful Websites

Flag of Spain

duolingo - for Spanish, German, Swedish, 

Flag of Sweden

HebrewPod101.com

Flag of Israel

Memrise - for Albanian

https://app.memrise.com/courses/english/albanian/

Flag of Albania

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Studies on Alzheimer's and Bilingualism

A study on on the brains of 79 people in Spain

https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13195-020-0581-1

A study of more than 250 (253) in the USA, in LA in 2020

https://www.uclahealth.org/departments/neurology/about-us/brains-neurology/bilingualism-delays-onset-alzheimers-symptoms

Travel To Keep Up Your Languages - and teach children and grandchildren

  I have been reading a book called Raising a bilingual child. You can tell it is American because it says raising. In Britain I would have said Brigning up a bilingual Child, which is alliterative.

Interestingly it give you a chart you can fill in. This seems to be the modern way. You can make a chart of anything, from your waking times and bedtimes, to the number of times you greet strangers, or watch TV.

You list the languages of the parents, the grandparents, schools, surroundings, books, TV and films (movies). Then the holidays you can take to the desired language country. Or the holidays the grandparents can take visiting you.

Children aged 0 to 5 and 10-15 have different interests. Starting with Lullabies.

Then move on to children's TV programmes such as Sesame Street which you can watch in Spanish and other languages. 

Later you can have books or movies in other languages. Or use other languages at mealtimes.

You can set up a system, such as speak the local language touside the home. Speak another language to parents, a third language to grandparents. 

If parents are from different backgrounds , you could speak English to father, and French to mother. Or English at breakfast but French at dinner.

My mother wanted me to go to the Lycee Francaise in London but I was not eligible because children with one French parent, took priority.

I learned French at grammar school, for O level and A level. My mother sent me to a French course in France. I took a holiday with a group of French students in Greece. 

In Singapore I have attended meetings of a French speaking Toastmasters club.

At Grammar School my other language was Latin. I wanted to learn another living language, such as German or Spanish, but the school timetable did not allow for it. 

My parents went to Italian classes later in life.

Now I am in Singapore, struggling with Chinese. Spanish seems easy. On the train stations I can hear anouncements in English, Chinese (Mandarin), Malay (similar to Indonesian) and Tamil (soutern India and Sri Lanka).

In China and Japan the same sign symbols are used.

Language Group countries

Arabic: Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, Saudia Arabia, Tunisia, UAE (Dubai)

Chinese Mandarin: China, Singapore, Taiwan

Chinese dialect: Cantonese in Hong Kong, restaurants in UK

English: Australia, Canada, Cyprus, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, S Africa, UK, USA

Esperanto: Hungary, UK (Reading)

French: Canada, France; Switzerland

German: Austria, Germany, Switzerland

Greece: Greece, Cyprus

Hebrew: Israel, Kosher and Israeli restaurants and delicatessens, synagogues and Jewish Museums 

Hungarian Hungary.

Indonesian: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore (Malaysian) 

Italian: Italy, Switzerland

Latin: Roman remains in Rome and Italy and UK; some traditional Catholic churches; Vatican

Malay: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore

Portugal; Brazil, Macau, Madeira, Portugal

Spanish: Brazil, Chile, Mexico,  Peru, Spain, Tenerife, Venezuela, USA 

Turkey: Turkey, Cyprus

Urdu: Pakistan

Welsh: Wales, trains and stations between Paddington, London, England, and Wales

Useful Resources

Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_spoken_languages

Books

Raising a Bilingual Child by Barbara Zurer Pearlson Ph D. Living Language, a Random House Company, New York.

Language & Literacy in Bilingual Children

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a British author who has lived in the USA, Spain and Singapore. Her 20 books include Wedding Speeches & Toasts, and Quick Quotations.

She has lived in the USA, Spain and Singapore. She is a travel writer and photographer.

Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English (advanced and English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language, French and other languages, aspiring polyglot.

Angela Lansbury is also a speaker. Member of many toastmasters -  speaker training clubs - and a speaking contest judge.

She is VP PR for Braddell Heights Advanced toastmasters club which meets online the first Wednesday evening of the month at 7 pm Singapore time; then the third Saturday afternoon at 2 pm Singapore time. Please come along. Open to Toastmasters and guests. In April and possibly longer BHA will be on bha/learncool.sg

Next meetings are Saturday April 17th, Wed May 5th, Sat May 15th, Wed June 2nd and Sat June 19th.

She  has several blogs and writes daily on at least two of the following:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Advantages Of Being Bilingual

You might choose to be bilingual in English and French, or English and Mandarin, or to send children to learn in a bilingual school.

Canadians learn English and French easily. but speaking French is the norm in Montreal. In Toronto when I went there, a backlash against promoting French to the exclusion of English caused people to demand that a tour guide spoke in English.

Such a pity. Such an advantage for everybody to be bilingual. Being bilingual is required in government jobs in the capital, Ottawa.

Over in Singapore, the Canadian school teacher pupils in English and Mandarin. How handy.

The website of the Canadian School in Singapore sums it up nicely. It is easier to learn when you are young. When you are an adult, being bilingual gives opportunities for higher pay.

When travelling, in Singapore, on the MRT trains you will hear the four official languages, English, Mandarin Chinese, Malay, and Tamil. In the USA many signs are in both English and Spanish. It is easy to cross the border at Niagara Falls and tour Canada where people are bilingual in French and English in the capital, Ottawa.

As an expat, you will find many bilingual schools for your children, and schools which teach a useful second language.

You can start or brush up your vocabulary and simple sentences for free online with Duolingo.
A system for Chinese is Chineasy, which has books and a couple of free videos to get you interested and started.

Chineasy.

USEFUL WEBSITES
https://www.cis.edu.sg/chinese-english-bilingual?utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=discovery&utm_campaign=bilingualoblookalike&utm_term=Expats+in+SG%3A+6+benefits+to+enroll+your+child+in+a+bilingual+programme

CANADA
visit-canada.com

SINGAPORE
visitsingapore.com

UK
visitbritain.com

USA
visittheusa.co.uk

DUOLINGO
Free internet courses in English and French and Mandarin on
duolingo.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have several more posts on learning languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Afraid to go to a Mandarin speaking club or meetup?

Flag of China. Red with yellow stars. Five five-point stars, one large, four small.

The last line is the numbers 0123456789 in Chinese. Source: Wikipedia.

The flag of Singapore. Red band above white. White crescent moon. five white five-point stars.


Problem
I am afraid to go to a Mandarin-speaking club in Singapore.
I am lost in most of it.

My friend Marshall says he can evaluate the performance of a speech by looking at the speaker. He is ticking the boxes for voice: volume and pitch and variety; eye contact; interaction with the audience; confidence; and a definite ending.

His aim is to be invited, even though he speaks almost no Mandarin. If that's what you want, fine, go along.

That's not enough for me. I want to learn a few words of Mandarin.

However, I realised that when I meet somebody who says, "I also belong to a Mandarin club," or, I speak Mandarin, that's my opportunity to ask just one question.

I asked Wil, "What's the Mandarin for Toastmasters' Club?"

He replied, "It's .....-......-........  which means speak-act-club."

That's very logical. I can learn one phrase, plus three words. Now, all I have to do is to learn the Mandarin.

Useful Websites
Google translate
https://translate.google.com/

Toastmasters International find-a-club
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

Meetup
meetup.com

Duolingo
Duolingo.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

How To Learn Malay From Government Leaflets In Singapore

Problem
I often pick up a government leaflet in Singapore and find half of it is in Malay. Is this a waste of my time?

Answer
No. After I have read the English, I have a chance to learn some words of Malay, which they call Bahasa (language) Malay Language. Presumably as opposed to Malay race or nationality.

I can immediately recognize several often repeated words, plus one of two which are similar to the English.

Malay - English
air - water
anda you/your
bar - bar
besar - bazaar
dan - and
Gratis - free
Ingrisjalan - road or street
jalan -street
jalan jalan - walk about, journey, Stroll
Juni - June

Kartu - card
krim - cream
lokal - local
makan - food
Mei - May
orang - person / adult
restoran - restaurant
Tarif - tarif / fare /price
tiket - ticket
tradisional - traditional

Useful Websites
LANGUAGES
amazon - books including phrasebooks and dictionaries from Berlitz, Lonely Planet and others.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=malay+language
This is the UK website. You may find different books and prices and postage on
Amazon.com
Duolingo - free language courses and discussion forums
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/20796214/Malay-Basics-1
Duolingo also have tinycards. These flashcards reverse when you click and then ask you to select from three multiple choice answers.
https://tinycards.duolingo.com/decks/Seft5g/malay?lesson=1

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-malaysian/one_1

TRAVEL

visitsingapore.com
singaporeair.com (Singapore Airlines)
visit-malaysia.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Teacher of English and other languages. Home tutor and workshop leader. Contact me if you or your college or business would like lessons.

Multilingual clubs on Meetup

Problem
I am learning several languages on Duo lingo because I start a new language every time I plan a trip, even if it is a year ahead (in fact you want to start learning a year ahead). I can't join a new group every time I switch to a new language. I'd like to be in an online or at home multi-lingual club. What are the options?

Answer
On Meetup when I saw French and Russian clubs I logged in and found links to multilingual clubs. Here are some:
https://www.meetup.

AUSTRALIA
https://www.toastmasters.org/Find-a-Club/00712902-manly-multilingual-club
Meets first Wednesday of the month at 7pm, Manly Bay, Australia.

SINGAPORE
https://www.meetup.com/FrenchSingapore/ (French and Spanish. They have French wine classes and show films, I presume with subtitles.)

MALAYSIA
Metropolitan Bilingual Club, Koala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Meets first and third Tuesday at 7.0.
A club in Toastmasters international. for others see Toastmasters international find a club
http://mbtc.toastmastersclubs.org

UK
Russian toastmasters club, London, England


USA
Phoenix Bilingual Club, Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
Spanish English. Has a French conversation sub-group.
https://www.meetup.com/phoenix-bilingual-club/

INTERNET
https://www.facebook.com/MultilingualClub/
This site has some Chinese words you can learn.

https://polyglotclub.com
Lots of people learning lots of languages asking for help translating phrases.
https://www.facebook.com/polyglotclub.world/

https://www.fluentin3months.com/how-to-become-a-polyglot/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher and learner of English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Welsh, Yiddish, Portuguese, Japanese, Greek.

Ten Reasons to enjoy Canada, the maple leaf and maple syrup

Problem
We could not get to Canada to see the 150th celebrations.

Answer
Never mind. We celebrate Canada every day with 100 per cent maple syrup on our porridge.

Story
What do I like most about Canada?
1 Maple syrup!
2 Niagara Falls.
3 No guns.
4 Walkways in the sky between buildings so you can get around the city of Toronto when it's snowing in the streets.
5 Vancouver - my favourite city.
6 Chateaux hotels.
7 State staff in Ottawa have to speak both French and English - an idea we should copy.
8 Easily identifiable flag. Red maple leaf.
9 Houdini museum - on my wish list, at Niagara Falls.
10 You can practise your French.

What do I like least? The French accent is not the same as in Paris. Oh, well, I shall have to live with that. At least the written language is the same as the French I learned at school.

Tip
You can see the fireworks and celebrations in the BBC article.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-40468161

I've tried not a hundred per cent maple syrup which is cheaper but it doesn't taste as good so now I buy the real thing.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (More on maple syrup in the next post. Please share links to your favourite posts.)

Tips on translating with Google and other sites

Problem
You copy from Google translate and the text breaks into half lines or disappears and floats. What did you do wrong? How can you stop this happening?

Answers

You can copy the translations from google. The text comes out large. So you have to make each word smaller. It would be faster to copy several as a list, then make them all smaller.

If you copy the text which runs over two lines, the text you copy has embedded the same line break. So you have to type out the words and copy only any letter with an accent.

Translation Checks
Google offers you alternative translations for words which can be translated several ways according to context.

If you print out several phrases from your automatic translator, you can show them to somebody who is bilingual on the plane to your destination and ask them if the translation is correct. If you have a long list and they are busy, get them to check just one sentence. If you ask the same person a couple of times, and find two or three people, you can work your way down your page without causing too much trouble nor getting told they don't have time. If you are lucky, they will come back to you later when they have time.

I have several more posts on learning languages. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, teacher of English and other languages. I can teach in person and on Skype.

Starting to Read Welsh on stations - then Learning Welsh Online

A month ago I looked at the Duolingo list of languages and was quite surprised to see Welsh (and not yet Greek). I thought, how many people want to learn Welsh? I suppose people living in Wales, especially those in schools, teaching Welsh, learning Welsh, in a bilingual school, which has bilingual notices, or government offices producing leaflets in the Welsh language.

However, this month I too a train to Wales, seeing Welsh on the train, Welsh signs on stations, leaflet in both languages. Immediately my interested in learning Welsh became intense, as strong as my desire to find a toilet (what's Welsh for toilet) and drinking water (what's Welsh for drinking water), not to mention changing onto the right train (what's Welsh for train?).

I picked up two Welsh language leaflets, one on the station and another on the Severn Crossing.

Duo lingo Welsh
As soon as I got a wifi connection (how do you say Wifi in Welsh) in my hotel (what's Welsh for hotel?) I logged onto Duolingo and signed up for Welsh. I have just done my first short lesson in Welsh. (I also discovered that the Duolingo website has rotating flashcards which you can use to test yourself. They pop up one at a time. That's a bit less daunting than the Review after each lesson.

It starts by asking you to match the words for morning and night with pictures.
Night - n o s  same initial letter
morning bore (I think of the English word starting with b, breakfast, or Break of Day. Is breakfast the most boring meal of the day?)
afternoon - p r y n h a w n - initial p as in P.M. (Latin for post meridian, after the middle of the day) last letter is n in both afternoon and prynhawn

Duo lingo Review
But the advantage of the review is that if you read the review of often 6 to 12 card all on the screen together, you can revise all the answers by reading to the end as they ask you to translate one way and then the other.

Mini Dictionary of Welsh
Regarding Welsh words here are some of my findings, with a little help from DuoLingo and a lot of hard work translating one word at a time on Google translate I shall fill in this list today:

English-Welsh
and - a
bus
brickwork - bricwaith
chocolate
coffee
drinking water
entrance
exit
ferry
gents (toilet)
ladies (toilet)
minutes - mind
no smoking
not
now
port
power  - p w e r
sandwich
station
tea
the
to
toilet
train - trên
what time?
where
where (is)
who
wifi
work - g w a i t h

Place names
Cardiff - Caerdydd
England
Fishguard
London - Llundain
Newport - Casnewydd
Scotland
Swansea
Ireland
Wales - Cymru

Welsh - English
a - and
am
ar - be
Caerdydd - Cardiff
Cymru - Wales
er
i
in -
Llundain - London
m i n u d - minutes (spaces because auto correct prefers minus to m i n u d)
t w n n e l - tunnel
y
yn - in

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Learning Chinese Online - how to say good in Chinese

I've been hoping to find a free course on line for learning Chinese and at last I've found it.

This one gives the tones as well as the five classic pronunciations of the word ma which means different things according to how you say it. (Any Chinese person or teacher of Chinese will tell you there's a sentence consisting entirely of the word ma said in different tones.)

I always thought either the British, BBC, or the Chinese, or the Americans must eventually make a learn Chinese course for English speakers. I used to look online and on TV and not find one.

Maybe they didn't when I first looked. Today is a happy day.
 I learned at a bilingual (English and mandarin) toastmasters club in Bukit Panjang, Singapore, that a group of people asked Ni how ma (equivalent of how are you; literally you/ good/ (question word). the answer is the middle word, how, meaning good.

What is my dream? To start a multi-lingual toastmasters club in both London and Singapore. Or a multilingual speakers club. A multilingual toastmasters club would be easier.

I thought I would go straight to the children's lessons as I am a beginner and wanted the explanations kept simple.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primarylanguages/mandarin/sounds/

Another guide to pronunciation, even shorter, is here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/chinese/real_chinese/start/

Angela Lansbury, B A Hons, ACG, CL,.

Hotel Receptionists' Language, English, or bilingual?

Singapore - Multilingual, but ...
   In Singapore I was inspecting hotels for a travel guide. I spoke to the manager of a hotel. She told me that she asked all her receptionists to speak only English both when dealing with the customer and when speaking with other staff. I asked why. She said that it reassured the customers. If I am an English speaker and the receptionists mutter to each other in Chinese (Mandarin) or Hokkien or another Chinese dialect, or Bahasa Malay or Hindi, I shall be listening anxiously, at first thinking I am losing my hearing, then on tenterhooks waiting for when they revert to English to address me.
   If you ask a receptionist whether she has a bedroom and she says she will check, then she turns to a colleague and speaks in a language you do not understand, you wonder what kind of secret coded message she is conveying.
   I've been in this situation. I'm sure you have, too. What goes through your mind? Is she insulting me? Is she saying that she doesn't want my business? Is she saying, 'give them that awful room nobody else wants - see if we can get away with it?' Is she saying, 'I can't be bothered to deal with this query - let's keep them waiting while we talk about our boyfriends.'
    The receptionist also loses rapport with the customer when turning away to speak in another language. If the customer hears the receptionist saying, 'Can you help me find two adjacent rooms for this couple who want to be next to their children?', the customers will listen for the answer.
   But if the receptionist seems to have lost interest, the customer may turn to their spouse or colleague and say, 'They are not doing anything for us here. We're losing time. Let's go to that other nice hotel next door.'
    By the time the receptionist has finished her conversation in another language, taking trouble to sort out a room at the budget of the customer, the customer has turned on his heels and walked out. Taking the business from the hotel. No wonder the hotel manager wants the receptionist to be smiling and helpful and talking to the customer in the common language, English.
   But are there times when it is helpful to be bilingual? Yes.

Bilingaul Ottawa, Canada
   In Canada government offices require employees to speak and write both English and French. Having bilingual staff and populations puts the Canadians ahead of others (who speak just once language) as employees when dealing with the public.
  I stood at reception in a hotel in Ottawa. I speak fluent French as a second language. I can converse in either French or English. But the bilingual receptionist at an Ottawa hotel amazed me by switching between French and English dealing with me in English, and the gentleman beside me in French. The conversation went like this. 'Yes, Madam, just a moment, please. Monsieur, voila, votre clee.' (Clee is French for key.' 'Je vous souhaite un bon sejour. Yes, Madam, we have your room. And here is your key. Have a pleasant stay.'
  What can one say? Formidable. Wonderful.