Since I barely manage to speak English, it is of little use to me thatI have a wee smattering of Norwegian, French, Spanish and now German; usually words meaning 'please','thank you', and 'where is the bathroom?'.
I noticed when I was in Japan many years ago that since I couldn't understand what was being said, I figured it must be French (my first 'additional' language) and those were the words and phrases that kept coming to mind.
Since then, I have learned a few other words in the languages listed above, but they really don't do me alot of good, especially since I keep mixing them up. "Un jus d'orange, por favor," will not get me anywhere. I have also stopped myself when I I found myself about to say "Jeg snakke ikke ...." and then I couldn't remember whether 'German' in Norwegian was 'Allemand' or 'Deutsch'. And for me, saying 'thank-you' sounds like 'gracias-merci-tuk' and then finally 'danke'.
Thankfully, the people here are very tolerant.
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