A scene from Tallinn

[bellinghman]

There we were, sitting in the Café Mademoiselle in Tallinn Old Town, drinking our coffees and browsing the web, when we noted a couple attempting to order. Since pretty much everyone working in the Old Town speaks English (Estonian is a nice language, most closely related to Finnish, but the number of fluent speakers worldwide is probably less than two million), that is what this couple was doing. However, they were obviously having a vocabulary problem of some form.

And then the waitress switched language.

To Russian.

Suddenly everything went much better, since the couple was Russian, and the waitress, an Estonian of an age to have been educated while Estonia was still part of the USSR, sounded pretty much as fluent in it as they were.

I did find it interesting that the switch only occurred when the waitress had decided that English wasn't going to cut it, and that it was her rather than the Russians who did so. Given history, I can imagine that starting off in Russian in Estonia would invite a certain hostility.

Comments

[silly-swordsman.livejournal.com]

I'm impressed that the waitress knew languages from three families (Germanic, Slavic and Finn-Ugric). IME, it's a lot easier to learn a language from the same family as one you know already, since you can borrow a lot.

[uitlander.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

I observed something very similar in Hungary 10 years ago. There was a block of literature I needed to read that was only available in Russian. The museum curator I was working with finally looked over my shoulder and sight read/translated what I had been struggling with. Apparently everyone in the old Soviet block was forced to learn Russian at school, adn many of the lessons were nly given in Russian. They do not like to talk about this, and in general will deny that they know any Russian unless using it is the only option.

[sshi.livejournal.com]

I was once told by a Finnish friend to stick to the English when in Estonia and not to try and learn local phrases (please, thank you, etc.), as that would make people think I was Russian and treat me accordingly, as opposed to the glowing welcome given to English-speaking tourists (mostly of the 'hello lovely person, buy my amber/knitting/paintings/etc.' variety, but better than having people being rude to you).

[megabitch.livejournal.com]

I am making mental notes of all the nice places you two visit. In 4 years D will be 18 and Korenwolf will be long finished with the immunisation therapy... I foresee short "getaways" on the horizon ;)