Job Discussion Forums

[erinyes]

I am currently involved with a site that is looking to put together a small core dictionary of travel language.

An interactive service that will naturally translate the most useful language so users can print it out and take it with them.

What sentences do you think are very useful?

I have go things like "I need to catch a buss to ___" but are there any sentences that you ever wished you could say, but you didn't know how to?

This service will be for people who are just new to traveling, or just going to be in a country for a short time. Obviously learning the language is the ultimate goal if you�re going to stay for any period of time but this is for the green travelers.

Thanks for you help!

[spiral78]

We North Americans tend to use lots of nice euphemisms, but TOILET is pretty much understood internationally...whereas, if you're asking for a RESTroom or WASHroom or, even worse POWDERroom - you're unlikely to be understood....

[tedkarma]

Most phrase books - and webpages tend to complicate things too much.

Instead of things like - "I'd like to know where the restroom is?" Try doing things "Where toilet?"

While not great English, these type phrases are often quite correct in local languages. Languages like Thai for example, leave out the "be" verb when it can be easily be understood and don't use articles before nouns.

I would suggest stripping the language down to the bare, very useful, basics.

In your example something like "Where bus Bangkok" is just fine. The more you add to it, the more likely the translated phrase will become nonsensical.

[ls650]

I think that that is good advice, Ted. If you were in your home country and someone with a strong accent from, say, Russia or India was asking for directions, which would be easier to understand: the correct "Excuse me, but could you tell me where the nearest washroom is?" or the broken but simple "Please, where is toilet?"

[spiral78]

Keep the tenses simple, too. I remember watching an American man in the AAA agency in Prague (where the clerks speak excellent English) getting nowhere with the repeated sentence

"I have had a car stolen."

I'm not sure myself exactly what circumstance he was trying to describe...

[dmb]

you never know. It could have been an insurance job and he organised the theft himself.

[danielita]

[Stephen Jones]

[Justin Trullinger]

In the words of Henny Youngman, "I've had a great time. This wasn't it, but..."

I know it doesn't fit. It's late and I'm tired.

Best,
Justin

[spiral78]

I expect that the car was a rental, and, hence, his distancing himself by use of the perfect tense. I think it would be more natural to say "My car was stolen" in the event that it were his car.

Anyway, my point wasn't really that I couldn't decipher (at least approximately) what the guy probably meant.

My point was that the grammar was confusing for the non-native speakers at the AAA office, who were expected to take action to report and remedy the situation.

And the American didn't get the idea that he needed to use simpler grammatical constructions to explain his plight.

[movinaround]

[Jetgirly]

My mom came to meet me in Barcelona and at one attraction she asked an employee, "Where can I find the gift shop?" The poor employee had no idea what she was saying, but my mom kept repeating the question using the same wording, over and over. I wanted to beat her over the head with my guidebook! I walked over and said, "Souvenirs?" The employee smiled and pointed us in the direction of "the gift shop".

I remember feeling so frustrated with her for not even thinking of trying a different word or rephrasing her question. Unfortunately she thinks I criticize her all the time, so I had to keep my mouth shut for the sake of our holiday!

[spiral78]

Thanks, Jetgirly. You clarified the point I was trying to make - if at first you don't succeed, try something different!!

I do think there's something like a "Repetitive Effect Syndrome" that would be interesting to study if I were independently wealthy. Why do native speakers so often get hung up repeating the same unsuccessful formula over and over?

[tedkarma]

You forgot that if you speak LOUDER each time it is also more effective . . .

[spiral78]

Howdya think I know what the guy at AAA Prague was trying to explain?

It 'works' in restaurants, too - and I bet many of us have heard that tactic.