Has being multilingual helped you host?

[Quincy]

Hello, Hola, Hallo, Bonjour, Guten tag, Salve, Nĭ hăo, Olá, Asalaam alaikum, Konnichiwa, Anyoung haseyo, Zdravstvuyte, everyone! 

I read somewhere that if you want to say ‘hello’ to every person in the world, you would need to learn those words from nearly 6000+ languages!

Being a Host means you will have people from all places and corners of the earth visiting you, and each visitor most likely speaks a different language. 

Currently, I speak both Dutch and English. I can understand Spanish, but I struggle speaking it. Other than English, my significant other speaks fluent Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean, which has helped us a lot when we were Hosts. 

Has being multilingual helped you host?

I look forward to reading your comments, whichever language you choose! 😉

Quincy

[Sarah977]

@Quincy  All of my guests have been fluent or at least capable in English, but it has been nice to be able to also communicate in Spanish with the Mexican guests I've had. Although their English is usually better than my Spanish 🙂

And I consider it rather disrespectful to relocate to a country where the native language is not one's own, and make no attempt to learn the language. Most people are very forgiving of mistakes made by foreigners that are not particularly fluent, and appreciate the fact that one cares enough to try.

There seem to be a lot of American and Canadian retirees here in Mexico with the attitude that it isn't necessary for them to learn Spanish.

But one's experience is always richer and more complete if you can communicate with the local population- otherwise you really don't have a true understanding of a culture or the people. 

[Quincy]

I think it's very important to learn the local language @Sarah977! I'm currently trying to learn Mandarin, so that I can communicate with other Mandarin speakers 🙂 

[J-Renato0]

@Quincy   

Nowadays, many travelers speak English as their second language.
Almost impossible to see a German, or Dutch who doesn't speak English well. And the French generally speak English too.
So, English is the most important language to communicate with most of the guests I have received.
Exception to guests from Brazil or Brazilians who speak Portuguese. Another exception are some Spanish-speaking guests who speak neither English nor Portuguese.
Although Portuguese, Italian and Spanish (and even French and Romanian) are somewhat similar languages (same roots), there are native speakers of Spanish language who understand nothing of Portuguese. So it helps to speak a little Spanish.

There is also the friendliness thing. For example, many Italians speak English. But if we speak to them in their native language, some like it. The same with the Spanish speakers! 

As a traveller, depending on the country we are visiting, sometimes speaking Spanish or Italian helps.

[J-Renato0]

@Quincy  This topic is very interesting ! It brings me some recollections! So, one more post 🙂

I have had a Russian guest that did not speak english or portuguese. Only Russian language ! He was a very friendly guy and was in Brazil two times and booked my listing two times as well.
To communicate with him I had to resort to the smart phone translator.

However I have had some other Russians guests who spoke english! Some of them easy-going guests and gave me gifts from their country.

[Liv]

@J-Renato0 Nice, I always appreciate stories of people who were able to connect despite the language barrier. Did you have to resort to your online translator while talking to him in person or was that via text message?

[J-Renato0]

@Liv   

When talking to him via Airbnb messanger I used english and certanly he translated the text to russian. He also sent messages in english and certainly using the translator.
I believe that, when we are addressing someone that we do not know the language, it is better to address in english. Most of the translators are more optmized to make translations from English language.
E.g. If I address a russian or japanese speakers I go for senting the message in english.

As for talking in person, the first time he came to Brazil he had a secretary woman who spoke english fluently. However, when he came to Brazil for the second time he was alone. So it was necessary to resort to the translator available on the smartphone.
Actually, he booked one of my listings 3 times on the total. He was a great guest and It seems that he loved Brazil. 

By the way, I have had another russian guests, mother and daughter. Two lovely persons who spoke english fluently. 

[Quincy]

@J-Renato0 Those smartphone translators have become pretty good over the years! Also, it's very kind of them to give you some gifts! What did they give you if I may ask? 

[J-Renato0]

@Quincy 

The guy gave me a souvenir related to the world cup in Russia. The women gave me that classic Russian toy, a kind of symbol of Russia.

What an interesting fact... I have had a few Dutch guest while you being dutch never hosted a Dutch guest! 🙂

[Quincy]

Hi @J-Renato0! Thanks for sharing! I did my practising a lot through listening to music, and reading books that were written in English. Additionally, we get English lessons at school (which is mandatory). 

When I was hosting guests, I've never received a Dutch guest, so I wasn't able to use my native language 😞

Absolutely, I agree on the friendliness part! I think it's a nice little touch to learn a few bits of words from another language, even if it is as simple as saying "Hello, how are you?". It'd be quite funny to surprise your guest with that! 🙂

[Sarah977]

@Quincy  "Additionally, we get English lessons at school (which is mandatory). "

I have noticed this about western Europeans- they all seem to learn English in school. It's too bad they don't do this in more parts of the world. Even in English speaking countries, some other language should be a required course, rather than an elective. It's so much easier to learn another language when you are young.

In Canada, where English and French are both official languages, there are French immersion public schools parents can choose to send their children to, even in areas where there aren't many French speakers. (English is  spoken in far more areas of Canada than French).

Both of my granddaughters in Canada attended French immersion elementary and junior high schools, even though my daughter and her husband don't speak French, except ruddimentarily. They just knew how easy it would be for the girls to have French fluency if they started in kindergarten. 

[Elaine701]

Having lived in Munich for nearly 30 years, my fluency in German has been helpful, since most of our guests are native German speaking. But almost any European under 50 speaks English as well.

Although Spanish guests often have very limited English skills. Spanish is, after all the second most spoken native language on the planet (by a very small margin) .

And obviously, this is Spain - the language here isn't English (we also speak Spanish of course, though not as fluently as German or English). And anyway it's not the guest's responsibility to speak English. Quite the opposite. 

Still the native language of Mallorca isn't Spanish, either. It's Catalan. But everybody speaks "proper" Spanish, so there's no need to be fluent in Catalan. 

Nonetheless, multilinguality has benefits. Particularly in hospitality. But also just for life. 

[Liv]

@Elaine701 Those are quite a few languages! How many do you speak? 

[Elaine701]

Thanks, @Liv 

Well, just 3 that I'll admit to. 

English, Deutsch, Español. 

Ok, a bit of Catalan just picked up here and there. It's a special combination of Spanish and French, so, not an entirely different language than Spanish, but not the same language. 

However, the Mallorquin dialect of Catalan is like the difference between American English and Geordie English 😳, so that's an additional challenge. But the Mallorquins are also fluent in Castellano, so it's not a problem. 

It's all Latin based anyway, so there's a lot of similarities. If you had Latin in school, you can usually figure it out. I could probably carry on a (limited) discussion in Italian, if I were forced to. Just picking it up as I went along. 

I know quite a few people who are absolutely fluent in as many as 7 languages, so I don't consider myself any kind of linguist. It's just what you do when you live abroad (well, for most, anyway. some don't). 

[Quincy]

This is very interesting to hear @Elaine701! The second language that I studied in the past was actually German, though I probably require a refresher again :-). 

Have you ever heard of Polyglots? Just watch them on YouTube to get your mind blown! 🤯