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Post your desktop.

JC, your desktops look beautiful o_O

Meh. mine...
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Just don't try using Russian language to buy stuff in shops.
Don't just leave it at that... now you got me all intrigued. :p

Most salesclerks here are required to speak both Estonian and Russian (and often English and Finnish as well, if the shop is in a heavy tourism area). Of course it's a completely different matter how fluent they are in any of those languages.
 
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Don't just leave it at that... now you got me all intrigued. :p

Most salesclerks here are required to speak both Estonian and Russian (and often English and Finnish as well, if the shop is in a heavy tourism area). Of course it's a completely different matter how fluent they are in any of those languages.

Well - I tried buying some ciggies in a shop - I asked for them in English and the old lady didn't understand (It was Marlboro lights or something.. how could she not understand?) so I tried asking in Russian and I could see she understood but didn't want to give me them cos I asked in Russian... so I asked again in English and this time she 'understood'.
 
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Well - I tried buying some ciggies in a shop - I asked for them in English and the old lady didn't understand (It was Marlboro lights or something.. how could she not understand?) so I tried asking in Russian and I could see she understood but didn't want to give me them cos I asked in Russian... so I asked again in English and this time she 'understood'.
You stumbled upon a real gem of an old lady then. :p

Some of the older generation native Estonians are still quite pissy about Russians here, you know, for the whole deportation to work camps thing during 1940-53. The way I see it, it wasn't the people who did it, it was the Soviet Union, so it's kinda dumb to be prejudice about the Russian people living here.

Oh well... getting off topic. Back to desktops we go.
 
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Hmm....

Sounds like the Parisians back in the '60s.
If you were American and didn't speak perfect French, they just couldn't (be bothered to) understand you. It always struck me as odd how the rest of the country had no trouble understanding and even offered to educate me on any tense or gender faux pas I might have made.

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Well - I tried buying some ciggies in a shop - I asked for them in English and the old lady didn't understand (It was Marlboro lights or something.. how could she not understand?) so I tried asking in Russian and I could see she understood but didn't want to give me them cos I asked in Russian... so I asked again in English and this time she 'understood'.
Yeah, my Russian teacher told me if you ask something in Russian in a store in Estonia they might charge you above the price. I've heard from my English teacher during high school that the same might happen in France if you speak English :D
 
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Well, that's only what I've heard anyway. I've never been to any of those countries to confirm those facts and I have never fully believed in that, cause if I did, the same thing should be applied when I ask something in Portuguese in an Argentinian store, and that does not happen at all :D

I believe this rivalry between countries is just an act :cool:
 
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It is true that in most big European countries people are really proud of their language and expect you to understand it, at least to some degree. If you go to France, Germany, Italy, Spain or Russia and expect everyone to happily converse with you in English, you'll be disappointed.

You'll manage, but it's easier if you at least learn the basic words and show that you're at least trying to speak the local language. People will be nicer to you, even if you revert back to English very quickly.
 
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