When you visit another country that speaks a language you can’t speak – do you use your native language or English when talking with dogs/cats?
February 23, 2025
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34 comments
With animals? My native language.
Animals and babies get spoken to in my native language always. I actually had to train myself to yell “NIE” at my Polish cat instead of “NO”.
I don’t know why but this question is hilarious to me. I like your style
My native language always.
I always speak to animals in my native language even when abroad, when you have fish leftovers in your hand, both British and German cats have shown impressive linguistic skills, we came to full understanding right away. (#KeineGrenzen xD).
I speak to them in danish. Poor animals.
Yes! But I learn the word for them in their language so I can start luring them over. “pojď sem gato, dám ti všechno jídlo”
My native language. Unless you’re giving it commands it doesn’t matter which language you speak anyway, it’s more about tone of voice. And if it’s a non-Anglo country why would the animal understand English any better than any other language
Depending on the country I make more or less poor efforts to talk in the country’s language with them. I think there are very few countries where I don’t speak a single word
In Estonian I could at least tell them ‘Hello, apple juice, street street!’ to lure them into me petting them
my native one.
I was looking after my friend’s dog in Ireland and i just spoke polish to him. Funnily enough i had impression he responded better to polish commands than my english ones.
In my native. But my cats understand 3 languages 😁
Cats are Dutch.
This is such a great question! I almost automatically switch to English, unless I am in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany or Poland. Dobry chłopak is one of the few things I can say in Polish.
Don’t know if I’ve ever spoken to a animal abroad.
There was this one time in England where I might’ve, but I didn’t speak English at the time, so if I did, it was in Swedish.
Usually native. If I’m in Czechia or Bulgaria talking to a cat I will add in a kočka/Kotka in my sentence so they understand me a little bit
My native language is English so I tend to speak to most people and/or animals in English.
I just bark at the cats and meow at the dogs, eventually scream at the pigeons.
I’m trying to remember and the only one I can think of was my girlfriend’s parents’ cat. I talked to him in English, but I was talking to my girlfriend’s parents in English as well so I was just used to it. I also tried speaking Czech to the cat (I only know a few words but “beautiful cat” are two of them.)
You’re all not just barking or meowing???
My native language, even if I can speak the animal‘s language. Is that rude?
Nice question. It’s my native language. Cats speak the language of love anyway so it doesn’t really matter.
I speak my native language to them. Generally with animals intonation and body language is more important than the actual words anyway.
I have four native languages (was raised speaking Finnish and three Sámi languages, not a good time) and for some reason I default to Inari Sámi with animals. Maybe because it’s how I spoke to our reindeer growing up, but even dogs and cats etc it’s always Inari Sámi.
Unless it’s a dog at work and I accidentally picked up ‘ahoj’ from my Czech colleague for the work dogs (people bring them in, no dogs were harmed in the making of the tech product the company makes).
I have to confess, I sometimes talk to my own animals in English. (We’re German.)
My native language. It’s the tone and body language that matters.
My native language. I spoke to all the cats I met on the Camino in English, even though I have ok Spanish.
I don’t think the animals mind. Using whatever.
With local humanoids, I first exhaust the phrases I’ve learned, then hoping to revert to a common foreign language. Globish or something.
English is my native language, so if I don’t speak the language of the country I’m in, it’s English.
My husband was laughing at me for speaking Spanish to a Spanish cat
I speak to them in three different languages. Spanish is their native language for commands, English that they don’t understand when I’m disappointed, and my native finnish in happy tone when I meet them in the morning.
For plus points, my first dog is named Koira, because that’s dog in finnish. The dogs are Mexican. Also they understand whistling.
Shit gets real when I’m talking with cats and dogs and that’s how I know it’s time to bust out the Uzbek.
My native language. I tend to use my native language with animals in English-speaking countries, too. Except for commands, then I obviously use the word the animal has been trained with.
34 comments
With animals? My native language.
Animals and babies get spoken to in my native language always. I actually had to train myself to yell “NIE” at my Polish cat instead of “NO”.
I don’t know why but this question is hilarious to me. I like your style
My native language always.
I always speak to animals in my native language even when abroad, when you have fish leftovers in your hand, both British and German cats have shown impressive linguistic skills, we came to full understanding right away. (#KeineGrenzen xD).
I speak to them in danish. Poor animals.
Yes! But I learn the word for them in their language so I can start luring them over. “pojď sem gato, dám ti všechno jídlo”
My native language. Unless you’re giving it commands it doesn’t matter which language you speak anyway, it’s more about tone of voice. And if it’s a non-Anglo country why would the animal understand English any better than any other language
Depending on the country I make more or less poor efforts to talk in the country’s language with them. I think there are very few countries where I don’t speak a single word
In Estonian I could at least tell them ‘Hello, apple juice, street street!’ to lure them into me petting them
my native one.
I was looking after my friend’s dog in Ireland and i just spoke polish to him. Funnily enough i had impression he responded better to polish commands than my english ones.
In my native. But my cats understand 3 languages 😁
Cats are Dutch.
This is such a great question! I almost automatically switch to English, unless I am in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany or Poland. Dobry chłopak is one of the few things I can say in Polish.
Don’t know if I’ve ever spoken to a animal abroad.
There was this one time in England where I might’ve, but I didn’t speak English at the time, so if I did, it was in Swedish.
Usually native. If I’m in Czechia or Bulgaria talking to a cat I will add in a kočka/Kotka in my sentence so they understand me a little bit
My native language is English so I tend to speak to most people and/or animals in English.
I just bark at the cats and meow at the dogs, eventually scream at the pigeons.
I’m trying to remember and the only one I can think of was my girlfriend’s parents’ cat. I talked to him in English, but I was talking to my girlfriend’s parents in English as well so I was just used to it. I also tried speaking Czech to the cat (I only know a few words but “beautiful cat” are two of them.)
You’re all not just barking or meowing???
My native language, even if I can speak the animal‘s language. Is that rude?
Nice question. It’s my native language. Cats speak the language of love anyway so it doesn’t really matter.
I speak my native language to them. Generally with animals intonation and body language is more important than the actual words anyway.
Is ps ps ps English?
With most animals I always speak in my native language, but wih cats it’s mostly [German that works](https://youtube.com/shorts/2goARbEMBrI?si=tVTtWUvuNbDZz4RA).
I have four native languages (was raised speaking Finnish and three Sámi languages, not a good time) and for some reason I default to Inari Sámi with animals. Maybe because it’s how I spoke to our reindeer growing up, but even dogs and cats etc it’s always Inari Sámi.
Unless it’s a dog at work and I accidentally picked up ‘ahoj’ from my Czech colleague for the work dogs (people bring them in, no dogs were harmed in the making of the tech product the company makes).
I have to confess, I sometimes talk to my own animals in English. (We’re German.)
My native language. It’s the tone and body language that matters.
My native language. I spoke to all the cats I met on the Camino in English, even though I have ok Spanish.
I don’t think the animals mind. Using whatever.
With local humanoids, I first exhaust the phrases I’ve learned, then hoping to revert to a common foreign language. Globish or something.
English is my native language, so if I don’t speak the language of the country I’m in, it’s English.
My husband was laughing at me for speaking Spanish to a Spanish cat
I speak to them in three different languages. Spanish is their native language for commands, English that they don’t understand when I’m disappointed, and my native finnish in happy tone when I meet them in the morning.
For plus points, my first dog is named Koira, because that’s dog in finnish. The dogs are Mexican. Also they understand whistling.
Shit gets real when I’m talking with cats and dogs and that’s how I know it’s time to bust out the Uzbek.
My native language. I tend to use my native language with animals in English-speaking countries, too. Except for commands, then I obviously use the word the animal has been trained with.