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Simple answer - If you know English, yes. English is the global language of business, thus is the global language of travel. If you know English, you are pretty much set.
If you know, let's say, only Spanish, then you will be at a disadvantage and travel will be very difficult.
You can get away with English in cities with International exposure or former British colonies and tourist areas. anything beyond that like local villages and pretty much where locals go you're out of luck. Places like S America youll have a hard time. When i arrived in Colombia the customs officer only spoke Spanish.
With the exception of St. Petersburg we found Europe to be very English savvy although as ace587 noted, the further from the main trouist areas you travel the less English is spoken or understood.
Simple answer - If you know English, yes. English is the global language of business, thus is the global language of travel. If you know English, you are pretty much set.
If you know, let's say, only Spanish, then you will be at a disadvantage and travel will be very difficult.
This is only true in main cities internationally. In South America (except Brazil) one needs to know Spanish to manage in places that aren't major tourist attractions. Also in China, in many areas there are no English speakers and no signs in English.
Sure I would, people do it all the time. I would definitely try to learn as much of the language as possible before I arrived there and if I planned on staying there for any length of time I would certainly immerse myself.
People are willing to migrate to countries all over the world, typically for a better life, without knowing the language. Usually, knowing the language is the least of their problems.
If you mean the local language, yes why not most of the world understand English my friend. I went all over the world with my job I don't speak there local language but in some Asian countries will be hard. Specially in rural areas wont speak that much English, once I asked for water from a lady she gave me a big piece of cane stick. )
This is only true in main cities internationally. In South America (except Brazil) one needs to know Spanish to manage in places that aren't major tourist attractions. Also in China, in many areas there are no English speakers and no signs in English.
That's why I made it "a simple answer" (I anticipated your response). Yes of course you go in the backwater one would still have difficulty...but even then sometimes you get surprised. In China I met a train baggage handler in Suzhou, probably makes all of $20 a week, knew English. The taxi driver's however, forget it.
Second simple answer (or rule of travel)- if you need something translated when in a strange country where English is not common, look for a younger citizen. In China for instance they are teaching their students to speak English like crazy.
Yes. I've been to many places on three continents and English is spoken pretty universally (even the Middle East) but I've also been to small towns in the northern Italy Dolomites region, where we stayed with family for three days.....and they didn't speak English! We managed very well with a phrase book, hand signals, and my limited Spanish that I could translate a bit to something similar in Italian. It was great!
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