Languages in the EU
I'm about to sound like the ignorant American I am, so I apologize in advance! We're looking at a trip to Germany, and possibly Prague, and we've noticed that a lot of the hotel names are French and a couple hotels that aren't named in French have replied to comments with things like "Bonjour! etc etc" What's up with this? Is French just the most commonly spoken common language, even in Germany and Czechia? (I know that Germany and Czechia have their own languages, of course.) Or is it something else?
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No. This title is likely taken by Turkish.
Many phrases from European languages are common knowledge across Europe. I'm about to go grab some coffee. When I walk in to the coffee shop, I'm free to say "Hello" in one of 10+ languages and no one will think anything of it. Why would I do that? Maybe because I'm in the mood. Ciao!
Not in Czechia.
X for doubt. Highly depends on where the shop is based. I would defo get weird looks if I would say Ciao at shops for 'Hello'. But most people will still know what it means. And 'Ciao' for goodbye is actually quite popular in the German speaking countries. But yeah it's not as random as you make it out to be imo.
True. I have mostly lived in touristy and immigrant-friendly places, and I'm OK with people not seeing me as a local.
So it's more like you don't care what people think, but people will still be like 'wtf' haha
Probably not in Berlin though, because nothing matters in Berlin.
People here (North Holland) are used to tourists and immigrants. A local could use "Hi", "Hallo", "Bonjour" or "Shalom" instead of Dutch-specific "Goeiemorgen"/other. If I say "Moin" or "Ciao" or "Hola", people will understand and sometimes reply appropriately, but likely continue in English not Dutch. It's something anyone would do for fun.
"hyvää huomenta" and "terve" on the other hand are not widely known to be a greeting. "tesekkuler" will not work as "merci". I don't do that.
Thanks for the local input, didn't know that
This makes sense, too. I know we borrow a ton of words and phrases over here, especially from our neighboring countries and historically from, well, basically all of Europe.
Some, like tschüß, servus or ciao are informally used by some Czechs, others like guten tag, bon jour, dobro došli are understood, but not used unless in some joke way. It would be pretty weird to encounter any of them when talking to e. g. hotel staff, though, unless there's an expectation you speak that language.