Michael wrote:I'm not sure if this is characteristic of all of the peoples of the Balkans, but (in contrast to Germans, Dutch, Swedes and Norwegians) the Albanians I know have been quick to switch to their language once I speak to them in it, even when I was starting out and still relatively new to the language, and they've had a lot of patience with me and will gladly lower the speed of their speech to accommodate me.
I noticed something like this in Croatia when I went there for my cousin's wedding, yes. I spoke Croatian with everybody I could speak to in Croatian there. (A lot of people I met there apparently didn't speak anything but Shtokavian Croatian anyway even though we were in the countryside near Zagreb). The only time I specifically remember someone responding to me in English there was when I told a Croatian friend of the bride's (in Croatian) that I was the groom's brat, since apparently that word can be used to mean 'cousin', and he asked me in English, "You're his brother? " (The groom didn't have a brother ). Then I think I said something like "ne, ja sam sin njegove tetke" (no, I'm his aunt's son) and he goes "oh, I see!" (in English again).
I talked to the Roma in the band playing at their post-wedding party, too. That was interesting; it ended up being in a mixture of no less than four languages. (My Croatian, their Serbian, my Romanian Vlax Romani, their Serbian Vlax(?) Romani, plus German, Turkish, and even a bit of Hindi the band leader attempted. There might have been some English somewhere in there, too, but I don't recall hearing or speaking any ).