4 Embarrassing Things Americans Do Abroad To Avoid Speaking Foreign Languages

On my first solo trip to Spain as a college student, I confidently boarded a bus in Madrid to buy a ticket. I mispronounced my words and asked for a napkin instead of a ticket. Flustered by the driver’s confusion, I tried to say I was embarrassed but ended up announcing I was pregnant. After several failed attempts, the bus driver and nearby passengers burst into laughter.

Despite my mistakes, at least I tried, something many people don’t.

A recent Preply survey revealed that while 80% of Americans believe learning basic phrases before traveling is important, only 58% actually make the effort to do so. This gap helps explain the awkward workarounds that travelers often resort to abroad.

We spoke with experts to reveal the worst things you can do when you’re in an unfamiliar language territory.

Nearly a quarter of surveyed U.S. travelers believe that speaking louder will magically make English comprehensible to non-speakers. This scenario typically plays out in restaurants, shops and tourist sites where voices rise from casual conversation to near shouting, often accompanied by exaggerated pointing.

Esther Gutierrez Eugenio, who has a Ph.D. in language education and speaks nine languages, has spent 25 years researching how we learn them, including work with the United Nations, and has seen this many times.

“While they do it with the intention of making communication easier, it comes across as condescending, a bit as if they were assuming the other person was a child or had an impairment. It’s really embarrassing, especially in bars and restaurants, where the waiting staff have no choice but to patiently smile,” she explained.

The volume approach becomes doubly ineffective because Americans continue using complex phrasal verbs while raising their voices. “Another thing that is very embarrassing is how they just try to repeat the same thing slower and louder while still using super complicated language that foreigners are not likely to understand,” Gutierrez Eugenio noted.

The problem often lies in Americans’ instinctive use of complex expressions. “They use phrasal verbs (pick up, sort out, figure out) naturally and think foreigners will understand them, but these are really hard for non-native speakers to learn,” she added.

Interactions can turn into amateur theater when Americans use exaggerated gestures and local accents, transforming simple transactions into performances that draw unwanted attention.

In Italy, improvising with hand movements can backfire, since gestures carry specific meanings. Gutierrez Eugenio explains, “Over-gesturing is particularly funny in Italy, since Italians have many hand signs with particular meanings which Americans obviously ignore, leading to somewhat embarrassing situations for them.”

She recalls one shop encounter where an assistant used a finger-gun gesture to signal “we’re sold out.” The American tourists, unaware that this was normal Italian communication, overreacted with exaggerated gestures while attempting Italian pronunciations. The spectacle drew everyone’s attention and left bystanders cringing. What started as an attempt to bridge language barriers had become a stage show.

When faced with language barriers, many travelers take a different approach: retreat to familiar territory. They skip local dining altogether, opting for American chains they recognize.

The Preply survey showed that 17% of US tourists deliberately choose these chains abroad to avoid language mishaps when ordering. They’ll walk past authentic Spanish tapas to find a McDonald’s, because a Big Mac requires no translation.

It’s not only locals who are bemused by this behavior. I cringe watching travelers line up for Starbucks in Rome instead of ordering espresso at a neighborhood café, or choosing Burger King in Mexico instead of trying authentic street tacos from a local vendor. The avoidance extends beyond food choices.

Many Americans seek out English-speaking shops or tourist areas where they won’t need to attempt local languages, missing out on authentic experiences entirely.

These communication struggles sometimes escalate into full confrontations.

Sean Stewart, an American-born historian who has lived abroad for over 30 years, witnessed one particularly mortifying incident at a train station.

An American tourist grew increasingly aggressive while trying to help a British woman at lost and found, eventually berating the clerk for not helping enough. “Finally, the agent lost his temper and asked this man, who just intervened, just who he thought he was to speak to the clerk in that manner. The would-be helper shouted ‘I’m a citizen of the United States of America!’ Bystanders practically melted into the ground with second-hand embarrassment,” Stewart recounted. “Needless to say, neither the woman nor he received any more help.”

Brenda Meija, a language professor and content creator, has witnessed Americans’ entitlement escalate to extreme conduct. She saw one woman destroy signage at a Puerto Rican café after the employee couldn’t understand her English. “She used racial slurs because the staff member was not able to understand what she was saying,” Meija recalled. The incident caused such a scene that other customers left the café.

Meija explains that this approach stems from broader assumptions about English. Surveys show more than a third of Americans believe English is spoken widely enough globally that learning even basic phrases is unnecessary. “Sometimes Americans feel that, since Puerto Rico is part of the United States, everyone should speak English,” she noted.

These situations are easily preventable with basic preparation. Experts agree that a little preparation earns goodwill from locals who appreciate any attempt at their language.

Gutierrez Eugenio offers three simple strategies that eliminate most cringe-worthy moments:

• “Use simple language. You don’t need to speak louder or slower; rather, use simpler words. Instead of saying ‘pick up’, say ‘take.’ Instead of saying ‘shut down,’ say ‘close.’”
• “Articulate more. It’s not about the volume or the accent, it’s about clearly pronouncing all the sounds, so foreigners find it easier to understand you.”
• “Ask with simple words, pause, and confirm. You don’t need to repeat the same sentence in 30 different ways; sometimes you just need to use very simple and straightforward words and to pause right after that to let the other person process.”

Meija says courtesy beats fluency: “What tourists can do is to be able to say hello and thank you in the local language. Locals always appreciate the effort of being polite. There’s no need to be fluent in the language, just showing that you care, and you are respectful towards them beyond language barriers.”

The solution isn’t fluency, but effort. Learn a few basic phrases and locals will appreciate it, even if you accidentally announce you’re pregnant on a Madrid bus. Chances are, they’ll laugh, help you buy the ticket anyway, and you’ll have a great travel story to tell.