i would say French as it is in a few countries such as France Belgium Switzerland, it is also taught as a second language in most other European country, English is always a good language to know also.

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I think you should be able to get away with English in most countries.

Andre

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Depends on where exactly you want to go to. You should be fine with English. Else I would suggest German, which is not only the official language in Germany but also in Austria and Switzerland. What's more, about 90% of the Dutch speak German. If you go to the Eastern European countries like Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, to name but a few, it is also of great advantage if you speak German, cause it used to be taught as 2nd foreign language in decades(1st being Russian). Even in Scandinavia and Belgium you should be fine with English and German. It's just in France that you really needed French...

so what lanaguge do they speak in Belgium, majority of the people in switzerland , speaks french german and italian. the reason why i say it would be good to now a bit of french is that i know a few people that learnt it as a second language in other european country.

Ultimately the dicision is yours. English is spoken everywhere to some degree.

I think as a native english speaker it may be a little easier to learn German due to similarities:

fire - Feuer

boat - Boot

I guess the real answer is this:

Where are you going to stay? If you go to France, learn french. The french don't like to speak anything but french. But be prepared that they pretend not to understand your french (I have noticed they are like that ).

If you go anywhere else you will be fine with German. The most tourists come from either Great Britan, France or Germany. The Germans tend to travel more than the French. They speak German all the way to Portugal (although they speak better English). The common ground among all is always English. If you go to some less touristy areas, they may not.

Andre

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In Belgium, one part of the country speaks Dutch (Flemish), the other part speaks French.  In Brussels a lot of people speak both of these languages.  Most of the Dutch speaking part understands a little French, but the French speaking mostly don't understand Dutch.  There is also a very tiny part of the country where people speak German.

If travelling to Europe I would suggest that English would be important, but I assure you there will be parts in Europe (like a big part of Germany and Spain) that the people only speak their native language, so maybe you would have to take some prepared basic sentences in  a few languages. 

Or only go to areas where you know the people will speak english which wouldnt be much fun. 

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So if I went to Europe would I still be able to communicate at all with people? I can not speak a word of any other language at all. I am from Australia.Would I be able to communicate in the Restarants say, when I wanted to order food? I worry about it a lot trying to order something but not being able to understand or be understood.

I think english should be enough almost everywhere...

You'd be surprised how little english the French speak if they choose to. I have been there before.

So that is why there are always many reasons to learn French. Once when I planned to apply for migration to Canada, we were told to learn French. I have studied the basics of the language but never remembered any of it now. Why can't the French learn English instead?

Well, I guess they CAN, and some even DO, but even if they know English, they usually refuse to speak it, so they make YOU learn French...

I don't like this kind of attitude, most people don't. I won't call this behaviour "arrogant", because I don't want to mess with the forum rules...  *grin*

I am not following. Either way, German or English get you very far in Europe. Depending on where you go one will be better, while English is being spoken in most places west of France (and UK of course), German is being spoken east of France. However when I was in Portugal they also spoke German in the tourist cities.

Andre

Travel Photos

i guess you can get allong with english in europe, even if its only the official language in uk and ireland (64 million native speakers). for german you have 95 million native speakers in 3 countries. and french ... everyone makes fun about them, so its not an option :)

however, spanish is even more common than englisch worldwide, but you wont come far with this in europe i guess...