Tourist Season Part 6: Holiday Languages

OK, we've just talked about five countries of which, three (Morocco, St Petersburg Russia and France) required you to speak at least one foreign language and Sri Lanka, where some knowledge of the local languages would be advantageous. You may turn around and say, "Well I don't speak French, never did it at school, how do you expect me to just learn it just for a holiday? It takes years to learn a language!" Allow me to answer that question today.

Thank you is a good word to start with. 

To become properly fluent in a language takes about 3,000 hours of studying for most people and this usually translates to several years. I think I've put in about 1,000 hours into my Welsh in the last two years and I'm not quite there yet. I'm a competent speaker but wouldn't use the word 'fluent' to describe my Welsh yet. What I am talking about however, is what you can do within 20 to 25 hours, a crash course to give you the vital basics. You may think: please, I need at least half a year! What can I learn in just 20 hours?!

A lot is the answer and you will be so glad you did it when you are confronted with a local who doesn't speak a word of English in some remote location. Just follow my simple 8 step plan and you will soon find yourself being able to use your new language after investing just 20 - 25 hours!

Would you like to communicate with people from around the world?

Step 1: The vital phrases.

Memorize the phrases for the following:

• Hello, good morning / good afternoon / good evening
• Thank you very much
• I'm sorry. 
• Good bye
• Yes / No. 
• Excuse me, please. 
• Where is the toilet? 
• Do you speak English?

Be aware that there is usually a difference between the way the language is spelt and the way it is pronounced, especially when you are dealing with French. When you are dealing with Russian or Arabic, you may decide simply to write down an Anglicized/Romanized version of the word rather than try to read it in its original script. There are plenty of travel guides/phrase books around to give you an accurate pronunciation guide and many of these are available for free on the internet. 

Think about how many languages there are in the world...

Step 2: Basic commands and requests 

These are basic phrases that ought to be able to get you through shopping and buying anything - as long as you can point at what you want. 

• I want that/this .
• I don't want this/that.
• This is good / bad. 
• Small / big / average 
• More / less
• Too much / too little / That's enough. 
• Very nice / not nice / It's okay. 
• I like it / I don't like it. 
• It is too expensive. 
• How much is it? 
• She wants one / he wants one. 
• She doesn't want one / he doesn't want one. 
• Give it to me / him / her. 
• I want to go to ____________. 
• I don't understand. 

"Bonsoir les mecs! Puis-j'avoir des kebabs s'il vous plait?"

Step 3: Numbers 

Once you've learnt to ask how much something costs, you have to understand the reply. So you need to learn to count - yes it can seem like a daunting task but break it down into manageable chunks. Start from 0 to 10, then 11 to 20. Pretty soon, you will see a pattern emerging. However, you need to check what currency you're dealing with - so with the Euro, yeah you probably will only need to learn to count up to a hundred, but with Russian, £1 / S$2 = 50 Rubles, so if an item costs £20, that's already 1000 Rubles so you will need to count beyond a thousand. In Sri Lanka, £1 = 205 LKR and boy did I have fun in Vietnam, £1 = about 33,000 VND. Ooh boy prices were a nightmare in Vietnam. 

Once you've learnt the prices, you should familiarize yourself with how they may sound when a shopkeeper tells you, "C'est neuf-cinquante." (Literally, that's nine-fifty, 9.50 euros.) Also, now that you can count, you can also construct more complex sentences with your numbers like, "I want three of those."

Can you work out the local currency in the local language?

Step 4: Food and drink

You do need to memorize the basics especially if they are radically different from English. Take something as basic as 'chicken' - in French it is poulet ('pou-lay'), in Russian it is курица ('kuritsa'), in Arabic it is دجاج ('dejaaj' - but to be pronounced with a French J and not with an English J), in Tamil it is கோழிக்குஞ்சு ('kolikkunju') - there's just no way around it, you are just going to have to sit down and memorize the relevant word. 

Here's the good news - don't fret if you cannot memorize everything, as long as you have studied it, it will be somewhere in your brain. For example, you may have studied the word for peach in Spanish "melocotón" but you may not be able to remember the word if I were to test you right now. However, when you are in a Spanish restaurant and you see the word melocotón on the menu - then chances are, you will recognize the word and something in your head would be able to process it and understand it. Oh and you will smile when that happens - that Eureka moment! 

Peaches - melocotón

I'm sure there's a more scientific way to describe this process - but I am going to simply call it one's "active memory" vs one's "passive memory". If you know the proper terms, please do leave a comment below and let me know, thanks. Your "active memory" refers to information that you can retrieve with no effort at all - for example, you can remember what time you woke up this morning, you don't have to think very hard. "Passive memory" is information that is somehow logged far deeper in your memory, in your subconscious and it will take a bit more effort to retrieve the relevant information. I often rely on my passive memory whenever I return to Singapore - for example, I ran into an old neighbour I had not seen in over 15 years but the moment I saw her face, I recalled her name instantly and was able to greet her by name - but it was only seeing her face that triggered the memory of her name. 

So don't worry if you cannot memorize everything you study when you are doing a crash course of a foreign language - words that are not retained in your active memory are still hopefully lodged in your passive memory. Whilst this isn't a precise science, I have found myself being able to read signs, menus and understand a lot of words in foreign languages I didn't think I would understand - and I put this down to my passive memory at work. More on this later. 

Can you order a glass of wine in your new language?

Step 5: Emergency 

Hopefully, you wouldn't need any of these, but it doesn't hurt to arm yourself with some of these phrases:

• Go away!
• Leave me alone!
• I am not interested!
• Help! Police!
• Stop! Thief! 
• Stop following me! 

You get the idea. Being able to shout any of the above in the native language would deter the person who is harassing you because you're sending out the message that, "hey, I speak your language, I'm not just some dumb foreigner, don't mess with me. I'm no soft target." 

Can you express yourself in an emergency in another language?

Step 6: Reading signs

Now here's the hard part: when dealing with a language like Russian, Korean, Thai or Arabic which does not have a Latin script, it is tempting to avoid reading in the language altogether - but you should make some effort at least when it comes to signs. You should be able to recognize the following signs:

• Open / Closed
• No entry
• Toilets
• Entrance / Exit 
• Stop
• Danger / Attention / Be Careful (slippery floor, ice, steep hill etc) 
• Men / Women (for toilets) 

Often, you will be able to figure out many of these signs simply from the context - but it is a good idea to at least have some idea what you should be looking for so you're not trying to guess. 

Signs in Russian on a street in St Petersburg

Step 7: Foreign films and passive language mapping 

This is the fun part and the easy part - now that you've done the hard work in memorizing the basic building blocks of the language, it is time to enjoy some foreign films in the language you are learning with the help of some English subtitles. I call this process "passive language mapping" - for example, you're watching a Korean film, picture this: the protagonist is tempted to steal from his boss but his girlfriend warns him, "하지마" (Hajima) and the English subtitles read, "Don't do it." Now not only have you learnt a new phrase, but you also have a very clear context to associate the phrase Hajima with which makes the meaning very clear. So the next time you hear the phrase Hajima, this makes it a lot easier for you to remember what it means because you have a context. 

I do this a lot before going on holiday - just be aware that a lot of this information will be stored in your passive memory and unless you specifically revise it, it will not be in your active memory. However, you will be amazed how much information your brain will retain even in the form of passive memory from these films. Thanks to Youtube and other streaming websites like Vimeo and Dailymotion, you can easily access TV programmes and films from virtually any country in the world now and they often come complete with English subtitles.

Whilst watching the films, do actively try to map what you hear - you will often be able to see the English subtitles even before the line is said, so try to pick out any words you do recognize in the language based on the English subtitles. This requires you making quite an effort of course, many people simply allow the foreign language to wash over them and rely solely on the subtitles. Try it, you'll be amazed how much you can understand. 

Experiencing the local language is a big part of travelling. 

Step 8: Mistakes and errors.

Remember, when you get to the country and you start speaking the language, nobody will expect you to be fluent. The fact that you are even speaking their language at all is amazing and they will realize that. The next line is so important that I am going to shout it out loud:
Nobody is going to laugh at you or make fun of you when you make a mistake in their language!

How dare you use the wrong tense in that sentence?!

Quite simply, people are not that malicious or nasty. Please don't be racist and assume the very worst of the people in the country you're visiting. Would you make fun of a foreigner who is struggling in English? I wouldn't - because I recognize that English is not his/her first language. And even if you do meet a childish asshole who is immature enough to laugh at you when you try to speak his language, then just say, "screw you moron, let's see you try to speak English so I can make fun of how bloody stupid you sound when you try to speak my language." Perhaps that's just the kind of person I am, I have a thick skin and I don't melt like a sugar cube in a cup of hot tea when someone makes fun of me.

Just accept that you are going to make loads of mistake in that language when you try to speak it and guess what? It doesn't matter - your efforts will be rewarded with friendliness and gratitude. You are after all, showing an interest in their culture and language - you're far more likely to offend people if you refuse to make any effort and expect them to speak English for you. This is particularly true in a place like France, where refusing to even try to speak French is the biggest mistake you can make - but making mistakes when you try to speak French is perfectly acceptable! There is a big difference between the former and the latter and I hope you realize that! 

Don't you want to chat to the locals when you are travelling?

When I was working in Istanbul and I had to deal with locals didn't speak any English and I had to use my very limited Turkish to communicate with them - they were so tickled that this Chinese looking guy was making such a valiant effort to speak their language and they couldn't have been any more friendly to me. After a few days of struggling on in Turkish with them - one of them revealed that he could speak a little English and I was like, "why didn't you just speak English with me since you do speak English, why did you make me struggle on in Turkish for the last few days?" 

"My English is very bad - I was scared that you will laugh at me if you hear how bad it is. But you are not afraid of speaking Turkish and so... I shouldn't be afraid of using my English."

I shook his hand and said, "If you promise to teach me Turkish, then I will help you with your English, okay? We are friends, good friends help each other - good friends do not make fun of each other, right?"

I will always bend over backwards to speak to the locals. 

So there you go - after these 8 steps which will take about 20 - 25 hours, you should have a very basic, workable grasp of your new language that should allow you to communicate with the locals during your holiday. Remember, the harder you work at it, the better you will get. Print or write out the basic phrases and take them with you - just in case you forget how to say something, you can always fish your list of phrases out of your pocket. The more you do this, the easier it will get with each subsequent language. Be realistic, some languages are obviously going to be more accessible than others - if you speak English as a first language, then most European languages will be quite accessible but something like Arabic, Hindi or Thai would be a challenge. If you speak Mandarin, then you will be amazed how many Chinese loan words there are in Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese.

Finally, a disclaimer: you will be speaking a very basic version ('baby talk') of the language after this crash course - the grammar will be rubbish and it will be full of mistakes. But you will be speaking the language and you will be able to actually have basic conversations with the locals. Be patient - you may find that you understand very little at first, but once you arrive in the country, that is when you will be amazed just how much you actually do understand and can say! Your language skills will improve with each day you spend in the country but so much of that depends on you maintaining a positive attitude towards learning. As always, if you have any questions on this issue or anything else pertaining to learning foreign languages, leave a comment below. Kamsahamnida, kiitoksia oikein paljon, teşekkür ederim, shoukran gazillan, spasibo bolshoye, muito obrigado, romba nandri, hvala leapa, dank je wel, diolch yn fawr!

Have fun on your travels!