June 26, 2010 at 10:00 am
· Filed under Hints and Tips, Italian, Language acquisition, Travel · Posted by Wendy
…or, by being around other people who are doing.
During my short visit to Milan, I got to have the fun experience of being in a small car with three Italian girls who weren’t 100% sure where they were going. Typically, Italians are exuberant in their speech, and talk a lot with their hands, and these girls were no exception. Although they spoke almost entirely in Italian, I managed to work out quite a few words just by what we were doing. We made a lot of left turns (yes, we got a bit lost), so I learned that sinistra means left. It took me a while to work out that Magenta was a town, not a colour, but I managed. When we finally reached our destination, I had a few more direction terms under my belt. The girls apologised for speaking entirely in Italian, but I didn’t mind at all. I got to learn a few new practical words, and also got to see Italians waving their arms and yelling ‘Papa Giovanni!’ multiple times (no joke – I think it was the name of a road).
Permalink
June 18, 2010 at 10:00 am
· Filed under Italian, Observations, Travel · Posted by Wendy
I was watching a group of Chinese people operating a train ticket machine in Milan today, and they were struggling a little bit. Oddly, they kept choosing Italian as the language, when there was also English, German, and a few other languages (although not Chinese). They managed to operate it in the end*, but I wondered why they didn’t choose English as the operating language. It’s very possible that they didn’t know much English either (and maybe they did know more Italian then English, although I think it’s unlikely). But it brought up the question – if all of the languages are mutually unintelligible, do you just pick one at random?
I know that if English wasn’t an available option, I would probably choose Italian, Spanish, or French over, say, German, because I am slightly more familiar with them and they tend to sound a bit more like English. But if the machine gave me scripts I couldn’t read (say, Russian, Thai, Japanese), what would I do?
The Chinese tourists had the destination stored on their mobile phone, which was a good idea. It’s always good to have something to compare the options with. If I was going somewhere without a Romanised script, I’d probably copy and paste to my phone or iPod too.
Have you been in a situation like this? What did you do?
*The machine wasn’t that difficult to work out, but the delay made me miss my train! Luckily there was another train an hour later, and I could use the extra time to write this blog post.
Permalink
June 7, 2010 at 10:00 am
· Filed under Observations, Travel · Posted by Wendy
I didn’t know much about Hungarian food before I arrived in Budapest - just that there was goulash and sausages to be eaten in large amounts. On the way from the airport, my friend briefed me on a few words - hello (szia, pronounced a bit like ’see ya’), thank you (köszi), and a few other words which I forgot embarrassingly quickly.
Once we’d arrived at the markets, I learned quickly that paprika is very important in Hungarian cuisine. You can even buy it in strings as a souvenir. Sour cream and sausages are also used a lot, which was good news for me.
After a few meals I got a bit more familiar with the Hungarian words for food items, and quickly worked out which ones I liked (which was basically all of them). Here are a few:
gulyas - goulash, meat stew or soup
kolbász - spicy sausage
gombóc/Knödel - bread or potato dumpling, often boiled
szendvic - sandwich
torta - cake
palacsintak - thin pancakes, like French crepes, served sweet or savoury
Because all of these things were pretty delicious foods, and/or memorable words, I didn’t have much trouble learning them so I could ask for them again. If only all words had such motivational properties!
Permalink
June 3, 2010 at 10:00 am
· Filed under Hints and Tips, Observations, Travel · Posted by Wendy
I’m on holiday this month, and travelling through six different countries (with six different languages) in less than three weeks can be a bit confusing when it comes to speaking*. I’ve talked before about the things I think it’s necessary to learn when travelling to new places, but I’ve come to the conclusion that you really don’t need much besides hello, thank you, and a smile on your face while you point at things. Of course, a bit more than this is useful, but politeness will get you by, especially if the other person speaks a bit of English too.
I guess this post is just to preface the travel/communication related posts coming up, and to make an excuse for my very irregular posting!
*Thankfully a few of them use Euros so at least the money was slightly simpler.
Permalink
Entries RSS 
