Do you speak English?

Ancient Croatian alphabets -Glagolitic

Terry from Complete and Creative travelblog inspired me to write an article about languages. However, since this is a travelblog I shall tie this topic with travelling. I believe many of you travellers out there at one point or another during your travels wished you can speak all the languages in the world. Well, we all know that it is an impossible wish no matter how intelligent you are. Many a time, we will be stuck in a country where we can't differentiate in and out or even yes or no. Most of us probably speak English and in our desperate attempts to communicate with a local, we ask them the most unforgivable question "Do you speak English?". If you are lucky in Italy or France, someone might be friendly enough to help you even though you forced your almighty english speaking skills upon them.
It is not easy to understand especially if you are a native english speaker. But try to think about it this way. What if the tables were reversed? Some foreigners who do not speak English are travellng in your home country. Do you force them to speak English no matter how bad it is? Or would you try your hardest to speak a little of their language? You may say, who does not know how to speak English in this modern world! One must be from a really rural area to be devoid the chance to learn this universal tongue. If you think this way, you are absolutely wrong. One can choose to learn English but it's definitely not a necessity!
We are all travellers on this little globe. All the languages on this earth took hundreds or even thousands of years to develop to where they are now, a functional communication tool. So do respect the country that you are travelling in and pick up a couple of words in their language along the way. You will then figure out that the joy of travelling is not just about the nature or the food but the true appreciation of another culture acquired through a new tongue.