In Reply to: Few Tourist Police Can Speak English posted by GaryD on Saturday, 18. February 2012 at 16:46 Bali Time:
I work in tourism in Bali and I have to speak so many languages and since only 10% of our clients are from Australia I find I actually need more European languages than English. So, if they really need to communicate they will have to learn a lot more than English. A lot of Europeans and Asians cannot speak English so they can have fun trying to understand each other.
I actually find that a lot of English speaking people are very hard to understand as they use slang and don't even know they are doing it, our staff have a hard time understanding some Australians especially and last month we had a great time with some people from England. One example:
4 English guests all decide they will have pancakes for breakfast, Balinese waiter asks for their order. One guy says "pancakes all round thanks". Balinese waiter looks at him strangely. Guest repeats order "pancakes all round". Balinese waiter answers "but pancakes always round sir".