I have found that learning to say "Excuse me, I don't speak (local language) very well. Can you help me?" in someone's native tongue goes a long way towards establishing good relations. It is surprising how many people worldwide speak English but might resent an American (or Canadian) just assuming they do without making any effort to learn some basic phrases. I would also (this was way before tech like Google Translate) make a cheat sheet to carry in my wallet. Hello, goodbye, please, thank you, right, left, how much, where, restroom, etc. and make notes when you learn a new phrase. But nowadays yes, Google Translate is indeed amazing! Safe travels and thanks for the wonderful content, my friend.
Another tool, helpful tools, appreciated tools, is to be open, friendly and inviting...oh and don't forget to smile...these 4 tools can help tremendously!
Tech is great. Some of my interactions with people were when we didn't have a language (or much of - think French, Spanish, Latin) ) in common, and we still managed to communicate and it was always funny. I remember them and I laugh to myself all over again and it puts a big smile on my face. I met this one fellow who refused to talk to me in Quebec. We ended up have a great conversation and I got a great lesson in French pronunciation. I couldn't leave him there, you see, as he had a problem with is bike and it was obvious to me that he didn't know how to fix it and I did. I will check out Google translate.
I switched to Immersive Translate because it provides both the target language and translation results on one page, unlike Google Translate which can be inaccurate and direct.
This is a great video. Do you try to remember or memorize what Google Translate says? If you use Google Translate to translate the same statement or question over and over again into the same foreign language, you might as well try to remember or memorize what it says.
Yup! Sometimes I'll even start a note on my phone with my most-used phrases. And then there's lots of time on the bike to repeat them over and over to myself so they stick ;)
