Re: Language barrier
Posted: 4 May 2011, 9:36am
I've yet to have a problem getting along. Context is everything, if you're in a train station it's pretty obvious you want a train ticket, if you have a bike to point/nod at, it's pretty obvious you want that to come too, if you're in a cake shop, you probably want cake, etc. Main but occasional problem is drunks in bars, always seem to latch onto you and never give up despite it being clear there's no comprehension going on either way.
I do think you should learn some key words/phrases and not bark at people in english as a minimum, but sometimes if you're crisscrossing borders it's not always easy. Coming south from Bratislava a couple of years ago, within several days I passed thru Slovakia, Austria, Hungary (and between the two a couple of times), Slovenia, and Croatia. That would have given me some fun with the phrase books had I tried to learn them all. In retrospect I should have refreshed the schoolboy German as seems the 2nd language in that part of the world.
I do think you should learn some key words/phrases and not bark at people in english as a minimum, but sometimes if you're crisscrossing borders it's not always easy. Coming south from Bratislava a couple of years ago, within several days I passed thru Slovakia, Austria, Hungary (and between the two a couple of times), Slovenia, and Croatia. That would have given me some fun with the phrase books had I tried to learn them all. In retrospect I should have refreshed the schoolboy German as seems the 2nd language in that part of the world.