![]() that we conducted virtually in the fall of 2021 in 17 non-English languages. Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey and 49 focus groups of participants from across the U.S. The analysis is based on a Pew Research Center analysis of the U.S. Sage Advice : Always travel with a small notebook and pen or pencil so that you can add to your phrasebook, dictionary, or notecards as needed.This report focuses on how immigrant members of the ethnically diverse Asian population navigate through challenges related to language and culture in the United States. Would you please call Sage Scott in Kansas City at ?.Could you please help me get to my connecting flight to Kansas City?.I am traveling alone and do not speak very much English.Lissette had a stack of index cards that she could mix-and-match to communicate with Americans here in the US before she reached me. ![]() A colleague of mine has Celiac disease and relies on these gluten-free dining cards available in up to more than 60 languages to help her clearly communicate her dietary restrictions when traveling internationally.Ī French friend armed her teenage daughter with translated cards when the 16-year-old traveled alone from Paris to Kansas City to spend the summer with me. This is an especially helpful option for travelers with medical conditions or food allergies. They don’t take up much space, and are incredibly helpful ways to stretch the key phrases you’ve learned in the local language like:Īnother option is to have cards with key phrases or important information translated into the local language. ![]() And those were the languages we collectively possessed among us.Īfter three failed attempts to find a common language (and several poorly acted rounds of charades), it dawned on me that Google Translate might be the key to overcoming the language barrier.īooks Aren’t Dead, but Your Smartphone Battery Might Beįor those unexpected times when your smartphone’s battery is dead or service isn’t available, you’ll want an old school back-up like a phrasebook or pocket dictionary. She should be able to unlock the door for Chris and reunite him with his suitcase. The good news - we spotted a cleaning woman was at work where Marianna and I were. He walked down to the third floor where we were working without realizing the door would automatically lock behind him, separating him from his suitcase. My co-worker Chris was working in the office space two floors above Marianna and me. While the locals had left promptly at 5:00 pm to get home to their families, a few of us Americans had opted to work a little longer until it was time for our dinner reservations. Good old Google Translate once saved a colleague from a rough, first night in Sweden. They may not do it as elegantly as a bilingual native, but they usually get the job done. These tools can help you understand words and phrases in many world languages, from Afrikaans to Welsh. If you have access to digital tools, consider iTranslate, Voice Translator, or Google Translate. The bad news is that connectivity can be unreliable or non-existent in parts of the world. The good news about our hyper-connected world is that anything and everything we’d ever want to know is at our fingertips on our smartphones. Here are nine phrases to know in the local language when you travel abroad. ![]() However, just a few phrases in the local language will go far in enhancing your experience and earning the respect of the locals. It’s difficult to learn another language, and no one is expected to be fluent in all 7,000+ living languages spoken around the world today. Sage Advice: Be a gracious world traveler by knowing how to say thank you in 65 different languages. In these pocket-sized secret decoder rings, phonetic pronunciations taught us to say s’il vous plait (“please” in French) as “see voo play” rather than “sill voos plate.” While old-school phrase books still get the job done, today’s world travelers also have tools like Babbel and Rosetta Stone to help them out. In part to overcome language barriers, and in part to ensure we weren’t being ugly Americans, my mom and dad always required us to learn a few, important phrases in the local language.īecause this was in the 1980s (also known as the “dark ages” before the internet and smartphones) we learned things like “yes,” “no”, “thank you” and “where is the restroom” from phrase books. This was especially true when we ventured away from the larger, capital cities of Europe and into the countryside. As a kid living in Europe before the European Union was established, English wasn’t as commonly spoken across the continent as it is today. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |