Excuse me, parlez-vous...?

Language Tips :
 

(Continued from last week)

by Robert Isenberg

People misunderstand each other all the time

So you've stepped off the plane, passed through customs, and there you are: Smack in the middle of Tokyo's Narita Airport. Everyone is speaking Japanese. The bright, colourful signs are splayed with kanji and hiragana writing.... we wrote last week.

Unfortunately, the only Japanese word you know is "sushi," and you can't even read that one. You have to check into the hotel by six o'clock, and everybody is moving so fast, and you can't even find a simple exit sign, and everybody's looking at you, and the whole conference is going to be a disaster, and?

So you take a deep breath, you step up to a friendly-looking guy in a suit, and, reading from your phrase book, you say: "Uh, konichi-wa...uh...anay-tah-wah...ay-go...oh...hana-shee...ma-soo...?"

And the guy just looks at you, like: What the heck did you just say?

Even though nothing is more difficult, more aggravating, than trying to puzzle out a foreign language learning one can be fun and rewarding, opening all sorts of cultural doors.

And if you travel broadly, you'll likely get stuck somewhere, butchering foreign phrases and getting weird looks. This is never easy and it's sometimes humiliating or dangerous but it's an inevitable fact of the traveler's life. Here we give below, more suggestions for bushwhacking into an exotic tongue.

Don't be afraid to look like an idiot

After all, if you're in Latvia and you don't speak Latvian, every attempt to communicate is going to sound silly.

That's natural and if people laugh, they laugh. You have hotels to check in to and onion-domed churches to explore, and not everybody is going to understand that. As long as you're confident, polite and trying your best, no one can begrudge your efforts.

Stay calm

Trying to communicate can be frustrating and even exhausting it's probably the toughest roadblock for travellers, no matter how experienced.

Whatever you do, don't raise your voice. If you've flagged down a pedestrian, tried to grill him for directions, and he just doesn't get it, thank him and try somebody else.

Almost nobody wants to deal with a panicked traveller babbling in a foreign tongue, any more than they want to deal with a raving homeless person.

Body language

You may feel silly trying to draw a picture of a cathedral in the air, but you might also be surprised how many times this works. Pantomime has its limits you'll never have an in-depth geopolitical debate this way but for simple goals, like food and train stations, simple gestures can be very helpful. (Take note: If you happen to know American Sign Language, this probably will not help you abroad. Each country has its own version of sign, and they're all very different).

Use your doodling skills

Some travellers carry notebooks with them, so they can sketch simple drawings much like the game Pictionary, except that instead of drawing a celebrity or famous event, you're generally asking how to get to the airport.

Also, many large bookstores carry laminated, waterproof picture-guides; using simple, universal drawings and icons (animals, food items, medical symbols), a tourist can simply point to a picture and be instantly understood. These are especially handy in emergencies or when you just really need a hamburger.

Digital do

Electronic translators usually look like a very large calculator, with a narrow display screen and an alphabetical keypad. You type in a simple phrase and get a simple answer and current models are so powerful that they contain entire dictionaries for multiple languages.

It's faster than a dictionary and especially helpful for people who have already studied the language in question. But be wary: Unlike a dictionary, these devices provide much simpler answers, and their vocabularies are generally limited.

And many people especially in poorer nations frown upon their use, thinking them demeaning or tacky. Use at your own risk.

Keep a good sense of humour

Honestly, the language barrier can be hilarious. People misunderstand each other all the time even when they're speaking the same language and so it goes abroad.

There are all kinds of famous miscommunications: Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language, and even if you pronounce the word correctly, you may use the wrong tone (wishing to say "hello," instead you say "horse").

And sometimes you've used the right word, but the word doesn't exist in the local dialect (Spanish varies greatly from country to country, and an ordinary phrase in Puerto Rico may be an embarrassing double-entendre in Mexico.

If at first you don't succeed, try again and don't miss the chance to laugh. A smile is the universal language.