We were never taught how to say ‘Do you speak English?’ The phrase book tells me this but in class, and with the tutor and classmates, this was never an option and we never asked how we might ask. In fact even more than this it never crossed our minds that English might be an option. Although English is widely spoken, we know it is widely taught, we know it forms part of the statutory training of service workers in the tourist destinations abroad, somehow all our classes and role plays had to make us act as if this were not the case, as if we, as the guest, could only offer the few halting words of Portuguese or Italian to those with whom we wished to communicate. As if – the subjunctive mood – is the dominant mood. Our interactions in the language class and on the language holiday take place as if we do not have the language of English in common. The mood is strong, it never hesitates, never falters, it does linguistic body swerves as we improve, doing everything it can to describe things in Portuguese or Italian words for which we do not know the accurate word. It requires patience in our classmates and in our tutor as we attempt to say the unsayable in words that are not ours. English is the absolute and unspoken – literally unspoken – last resort.