"I read somewhere..."

[Churchill]

I am a foreign national, and I wouldn't take any offence whatsoever in such rules. If you live/work in a different country, you of course try to speak the local language whenever you can!
In fact, I would find it rather rude to speak my native language in the presence of Brits in Britain, because they obviously won't understand.

Assuming you're German, why wouldn't we understand? We had to sort your country out after Adolf's Adventures in Europe, 1936 to 1945.

Btw, where did all the :nazi::nazi::nazi: dissappear to after 1945?

Nein, nein, ve are Germanz! Not Nazi! :nazi::nazi::nazi:

[stek]

A recent job I was in a team of 9. 6 Hindi speakers. They would often speak in Hindi. Which is fine for personal stuff(if they want to exclude others). But for work it was quite frustrating.

TBF tho in Hindi it's like 'but but but java but but call object but but LDAP but but but but but but Directory Manager password encrypted but but but.'

[CretinWatcher]

Now that is something a foreign national might find offensive, who has been here for almost a decade, has permanent residence, got married, and has paid much more in taxes to HMRC than the average British tax payer. It implies that the welcome is time limited.
I've got a thick skin though, so no worries.

You're a gasterbeiter, innit ...

[SueEllen]

I was quite amused when my Indian colleague related the tale of the time he met another Indian gentleman on the street & after trying one or two Indian languages, they found their only common language was English.

Not surprising when India has over a billion people, there as some Northern European countries have less people in them than London.

I was told on one contract by an Indian colleague they had to speak in English to each other as even the dialect of Hindi was different.

[original PM]

I didn't take any offense at all, don't worry (that's not that easy to achieve! ) Just saying that those foreigners who try to settle here don't like to be called guests.

I don't know any particular bars in Cologne I'm afraid. Last time I was there (ages ago), we did a crawl... one pub as good as any other eventually

Yeah maybe you stop being a guest when you properly go native and genuinely integrate and embrace where you live?

I will certainly be eating wursts and drinking beer when I am cologne I will still be a guest mind you!!

[SueEllen]

At client site we foreigners have been banned from speaking German because it makes our Swiss and German colleagues ears hurt.

I suppose you can only laugh so much before you want to kill people.

[Kraut]

Interesting point - I was not having a go I was actually agreeing with you.

I am off to Germany next weekend - although my German is pretty rubbish I will make sure I can say the basics in the native tongue thats for sure - it's embarrassing if you ever go to a country and cannot say some basic phrases..

Anyway know any good bars in Cologne?

I didn't take any offense at all, don't worry (that's not that easy to achieve! ) Just saying that those foreigners who try to settle here don't like to be called guests.

I don't know any particular bars in Cologne I'm afraid. Last time I was there (ages ago), we did a crawl... one pub as good as any other eventually

[zeitghost]

I actually find it funny that instead of speaking their mother tongue when with someone else they know or are introduced to from the same country/area they converse in English.

I was quite amused when my Indian colleague related the tale of the time he met another Indian gentleman on the street & after trying one or two Indian languages, they found their only common language was English.

[Bee]

These are a mixture of people I've worked with and friends'.

Oh and they write English better than the majority of people on this board, which may have something to do with it.

Of course, at work we must have more careful the way we write.

[NotAllThere]

At client site we foreigners have been banned from speaking German because it makes our Swiss and German colleagues ears hurt.