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

[Quincy]

@Jessica-and-Henry0, I saw this video on YouTube about two Polyglots talking to each other in multiple different languages. It's so mind-blowing 😂 

[Kirsten266]

Last year I've had 3 girls from Paris for a visit. 

I was happy I've had 1 year French in high school.  They didn't speak anything else but French en during the covid restrictions it was a bit hard to tell them what they could or couldn't do ( visiting bars or museums) . 

[Dimitar27]

Speaking some foreign language helps, but don't expect miracles.

In my case...far from perfect English and some Russian helps. Not always, but...helps.

[Quincy]

Every little helps @Dimitar27!

[Gordon0 · Accepted solution]

We get a fair few Spanish guests and, despite Jorge being fluent, they prefer to struggle a little and speak English. I guess this is all about being a bit 'when in Rome', but it's all very pleasant.

Our Parisian guests (and this isn't knocking them) only ever speak English to us, even when we welcome them in French etc. (was the same when I liven in Paris in the 80s) whereas non Parisians will happily chat away in French. 

And of course the Dutch - they speak better English than me!

[Stephanie]

I thought that until I worked with @Quincy 😉 

[Quincy]

@Stephanie  I see what you did there 👀

[Elaine701]

You know, in my opinion, one of the coolest things about this forum is that it really doesn't matter where you're at or from. We're all in this together. And we actually like each other! Regardless of nationality or creed. I like that very much. 

Somehow, that makes me feel optimistic. 

[Sarah977]

@Elaine701  And another cool thing is that I have "met" so many other like-minded hosts here, that I know exactly who I would want to book with if I ever travelled to their part of the world. I wouldn't even bother perusing the listings in that area.

[Sudsrung0]

Dont forget Thai not an easy language to learn because of all the different tones, I think we have had every nationality stay with us over the years, The younger generations do speak English very well it's the older one who only speak their native language, 

Sawat Dee Ka