Page 77 [77]
OCR
STUDY ONE for the family. Those who had to use English mentioned several different situations. The majority of the participants reported that they had to use English when going shopping; Lujza, for instance, claimed that having learned English was useful when she had to “go shopping and buy some products.” Lina also stated that whenever she was abroad, she had to buy tickets for public transport and use English to communicate with locals using the English language, which again resonates with the literature emphasizing the lingua franca nature of the English language (Crystal 2003, De Wilde et al. 2019, Djigunovic 2018, Sauer—Ellis 2019, Sayer—Ban 2014, Sundqvist—Sylvén 2014, Sylven-Sundgvist 2012). Students also used English when they had to ask for information or give information to other people. Valentina, for instance, pointed out that: If we wanted to go somewhere, and my sibling was not there, I was able to ask how to get from point A to point B, and if we had a question about something, I could ask for information. This is further reinforced by Lucas, who stated that “there is always somebody who can help you in English”. He also gave an account of his family trip to Greece when he wanted to purchase a bracelet. In Greece, I had to tell a street vendor selling bracelets that Iam not going to spend 10€ on a bracelet, but he... was from Nigeria, so he spoke good English, that’s why I could tell him I’m not going to give him 10€. [...] [K]nowing English was very useful since it was his mother tongue, I could make it clear that he is not getting 10€. It is clear from the accounts of the students who had to use English abroad that speaking English is indeed a valuable asset as it can help one get from A to B or even find a solution in different situations, even when one of the interlocutors has difficulties expressing themselves in English. Lucas stated, Thad to talk to a half-French, half-English gentleman, who had to resort to gestures to make himself understood. But it definitely helped that I understood even a little bit of English. However, he just suddenly switched to French in the middle of the sentence multiple times. Participants seem to use the English language quite a few times when abroad as, in most cases, it is the only common ground in intercultural communication, and they also seem to realize the importance and global dominance of the English language, which reinforces the findings of previous research carried out in the Hungarian context (cf. Csizér—Lukacs 2010).
