I believe that one of my most outstanding airport experiences was in Turkey. I was flying from Ankara (ESB) to JFK on TK and had to connect in IST.

Upon exiting the plane in IST I was greeted by a young cute TK employee who escorted me to the CIP lounge for my short wait till the JFK flight boarded.

She was sweet and did I say cute? Anyway, she asked if it was alright if she tried to practice her English with me as she gets very few chances to speak English. It was really fun just talking for the sake of talking as she and I walked to the club.

Along our short walk I learned a few words of Turkish and she improved her English skills. We now keep in touch via email and she crashed at my place when she visited the states.

However, on the whole I have found that if I speak in English I have never been rebuffed or taken advantage of. One country in particular where English seems to be readily spoken is Switzerland. Every city that I have visited the people I have encountered have always spoken some English and usually with very little of an accent.

Dan