I am a regular visitor to South East Asia (I lived there for many years and still have 'roots' there.) Although I have spent more time in Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore etc. I have many Kabayan in Europe, Canada and the Middle East. The people of the Phillipines are prolific travellers
In my travels to other countries, I have only really encountered two countries that posed problems with speaking in English.
One was Morocco, where the two most spoken languages were Mahgrebi & French.
I got by on my 'school' French (we're all taught this in Europe) and Arabic, which is widely spoken in Morocco but not a 'main' language. The people *really* tried to understand me and were most helpful and friendly.
However, the second was France. And frankly - they pissed me off! I know most of them speak English, but won't! And if you speak your 'best' French, they just make ugly faces and say 'Je ne vous comprends pas'
So why bother going there? They don't want tourists.
Ah well - that's life! If there were no diversity, where would we be?
(Sounds of hysterical laughter fading into distance......)
