Or: How to get by in a country where you barely speak the language, and very few people speak yours.
Editorial Note: In April, I took a month off in Medellin. For me, this meant an interesting and diverting month. For you, this means 30 days of posts about my vacation. I’ll try to make them somewhat amusing.
The Facts of Life
The first thing that must be said is that if you’re venturing into a foreign country with a different language, you really ought to make an effort to acquaint yourself with that language. It’s just good manners, really. The second thing that must be said is that is that if you’re venturing into a foreign country with a different language, you’re going to have to learn a bit of that language if you plan on getting by at all. This second point might not apply if you’re going to be encased in a resort/tourist/expat bubble (possibly including the Lonely Planet backpacker/hostel trail) where you’ll be taken care of, but if you’re going to be on your own, you’ll have to face the fact that most people will have no idea what you’re saying unless you speak (some of) their language.
The Good News (Sort of)
The good news is that if you can master 2000 words, you’ll have yourself a pretty functional vocabulary. With that, and some basic rules of grammar, you can probably get your point across. It may not be pretty, but it will work. The bad news is that 2000 words and basic grammar is actually a lot to learn, and you probably won’t be able to master it before your trip. The really bad news is that understanding the spoken form of the local language (in the local accent) is a completely different problem to being able to read, write, or (sort of) speak it.
Workaround
Your bacon will be saved because the vast majority of human communication is completely superfluous. It’s just ritual chit-chat papered over familiar machinery. When you walk up to the cash register, the girl is going to ask you (a.) if you found everything and/or (b.) if you have a club card. When you hand her your credit card she might ask (c.) if it’s a credit or debit transaction and/or (d.) to see your ID. The limited scope gives you an excellent chance at guessing what she’s saying (or recognizing some keywords), and in many cases not responding at all won’t make any difference.
If you’re in a country that works much the same as your own (and, thanks to globalization, this applies to lots of countries) you can get quite far with very limited language skills. It’s just a matter of listening to the music rather than the words.
Pitfall
The problem with this workaround is that when you go off-script — when the local customs diverge from your expectations, or when an unexpected problem comes up — it becomes important to be able to actually communicate, and not only can you not do that very well, but you’ve been acting as if you could for some time. It’s a rather uncomfortable feeling of the bottom dropping out.
Tomorrow I’ll tell you about my cell phone experience to illustrate this point.
