Originally Posted by
Yaatri
I think most people can communicate with a person who does not speak their language as long as the latter's vocabulary contains some words relevant to the the topic. Gestures help too. My mother and my wife were able to carry on a conversation without any help from anyone else. I used to discuss politics with a Greek friend of mine whose English skills were no better than my mother's. A salesman in Singapore is likely to have a much larger vocabulary than either my mother or my Greek friend had.
I have come across people in Singapore and Hongkong, always Chinese, whose English vocabulary was non-existant. Even gestures did not help. A lot depends on their willingness to try to understand you. I have not had any dificulty in communucating with ethnic Malays and Indians in Singapore and Malaysia.
This is an interesting one. It is often possible, for example, for diner and a waiter in a restaurant to communicate quite effectively when neither really could be said to speak the other's language.
Similarly, lots of people can speak enough of a language to be able to undertake simple transactions (buying a travel ticket, checking into a hotel, even asking directions) without being able to speak the language very well at all. And in these sorts of cases, a lot depends on how disposed the person who does speak the language is to be helpful.
Originally Posted by
Yaatri
If I had to guess what shirt whiskers meant without the context, I would have guessed it to mean "collar stays".
I kept thinking of the sort of shirt the cat might be wearing.
