The word is “polyglot.”
I love when people call me polyglot when I only know three languages, lol.
Met an old British guy in a bar the other day, he kept commenting how good my English was. I think he meant well, but it rubbed me the wrong way at some like yeah, it’s not that hard, you know.
My Parisian waiter when I say “Merci Beaucoup, Bonne soirée monsieur”
Waiters in Alsace (Eastern France) will reply in German when you try to practice your French.
They reply in French when you speak German.
When you talk to them in Alsatian or Pfälzisch, they’ll introduce you to their grandma who will cook for you till you burst.
I live within cycling distance of the border, and go on regular cheese runs.
I live close to the border so we go to the Netherlands about every other month. I have tried learning some common dutch tourist phrases like ordering food or asking for the toilets. Unfortunately, so far most shops or waiters have just insisted on using English or German and I’ve been told numerous times something along the lines of “Why would you try to learn Dutch? We can all speak English.”
The front desk lady at one of the hotels we stayed at in Noord-Holland even told me “Oh, don’t learn Dutch, that’s such a waste of time.” I don’t know, I love learning at least a few sentences of the local language when I go somewhere on vacation. But I’ve never met so much resistance to it as in the Netherlands.
In all fairness I get a similar reaction in my own country, Portugal, when I speak in Dutch to Dutch Tourists.
It’s probably because it’s pretty rare for foreigners to know any Dutch words at all, even that simple Dutch equivalent to “thanks”.
