We just have returned from Roma and it was SO amazing, I am happy we saw it and got to go inside to see the Vatican and Basilica Nova. It was definitly a less stressful trip than Venice was, I guess since we are now used to the train stations. Agree 100% about the ads thing, I love that too. They are almost rather artistic a good amount of them, and I took a few photos. They seem to not mind nudity so much here either in ads (which I guess given the fact there are naked old statues and frescos on every single square inch of space, that would be pretty stupid to care about.)
I suppose logic oughta dictate that the signs and staff not need to know any English, but every time I have been someplace where the main language natively wasn't English like Quebec or Israel, they still HAD it, somewhere, in a train station. The staff could always at least still speak it at the train stations/airports, and frankly while I don't mind it all that much and I don't follow the whole 'You either learn English or get outta my country' bullshit, I still think that's not good. I don't think a tourist place like say a restaurant or museum necessarily need to know English b/c you can still get a basic idea easily across, but a train station I think yes you should, b/c you are dealing with potentially dangerous scenery, complicated situations, time is of the essence, and there's all sorts of people running at high speed everywhere in thick crowds. People wanna know if there is something dangerous or a track change or where they should go if they lose their child or can't find their baggage. I still think if you are gonna deal at least with a major center of foreign transport, where thousands of ppl from usually English speaking nations travel who don't speak Italian, you needn't have it on all the signs cos if you are smart you can probably figure them most out for yourself, but I think staff should at least learn it, cos from what I could tell, about 70 % of the people there walking round did not speak any Italian, both american or Europeans or Asians. At least knowing English would be of some backup safety use, since it is undeniably one of the most common known languages, and even if you are not a native speaker from abroad chances are you may still know a bit. It's not like here there aren't any semi-English speaking Italians or lots of foreigners, if the main population was chiefly natives who REALLY truly only knew solely Italian, and there were no other bi-lingual facilities or maps ever provided to me cos it was never necessary to them, that would be understandable to me, but most people here do speak English or have alternate maps/menus for you, so that is what seems the most weird to me. It just puts me in the mindset I can be able to talk English here, and better makes sense the other way round, that the locals would speak less and those at important tourist spots know more. I dunno. I would understand if this was more localized transit system, but the station was for all of Italy and a major tourist center, and everyone looked very confused and irritated, Non-english speakers and english alike. I mean, one time we were on the information line, and we started a conversation up with the guy at the desk in Italian, who was taking his time looking up some ticket data. We thought we were holding up the lines which were starting to go out the door with our broken Italian. Then I get tapped on the shoulder and this lady asks "Does this man speak ANY English???" I ask him and he shook his head, and I said "No, he doesn't." About 3/4 of the whole line groaned and left us and maybe 4 Englishmen who stood right behind us.
It's all kind of a moot point rant either way since I do actually speak the language. :)
I suppose logic oughta dictate that the signs and staff not need to know any English, but every time I have been someplace where the main language natively wasn't English like Quebec or Israel, they still HAD it, somewhere, in a train station. The staff could always at least still speak it at the train stations/airports, and frankly while I don't mind it all that much and I don't follow the whole 'You either learn English or get outta my country' bullshit, I still think that's not good. I don't think a tourist place like say a restaurant or museum necessarily need to know English b/c you can still get a basic idea easily across, but a train station I think yes you should, b/c you are dealing with potentially dangerous scenery, complicated situations, time is of the essence, and there's all sorts of people running at high speed everywhere in thick crowds. People wanna know if there is something dangerous or a track change or where they should go if they lose their child or can't find their baggage. I still think if you are gonna deal at least with a major center of foreign transport, where thousands of ppl from usually English speaking nations travel who don't speak Italian, you needn't have it on all the signs cos if you are smart you can probably figure them most out for yourself, but I think staff should at least learn it, cos from what I could tell, about 70 % of the people there walking round did not speak any Italian, both american or Europeans or Asians. At least knowing English would be of some backup safety use, since it is undeniably one of the most common known languages, and even if you are not a native speaker from abroad chances are you may still know a bit. It's not like here there aren't any semi-English speaking Italians or lots of foreigners, if the main population was chiefly natives who REALLY truly only knew solely Italian, and there were no other bi-lingual facilities or maps ever provided to me cos it was never necessary to them, that would be understandable to me, but most people here do speak English or have alternate maps/menus for you, so that is what seems the most weird to me. It just puts me in the mindset I can be able to talk English here, and better makes sense the other way round, that the locals would speak less and those at important tourist spots know more. I dunno. I would understand if this was more localized transit system, but the station was for all of Italy and a major tourist center, and everyone looked very confused and irritated, Non-english speakers and english alike. I mean, one time we were on the information line, and we started a conversation up with the guy at the desk in Italian, who was taking his time looking up some ticket data. We thought we were holding up the lines which were starting to go out the door with our broken Italian. Then I get tapped on the shoulder and this lady asks "Does this man speak ANY English???" I ask him and he shook his head, and I said "No, he doesn't." About 3/4 of the whole line groaned and left us and maybe 4 Englishmen who stood right behind us.
It's all kind of a moot point rant either way since I do actually speak the language. :)
Reply
Leave a comment