{"id":1411,"date":"2013-08-01T09:45:22","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T13:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lacurevillas.com\/magazine\/?p=1411"},"modified":"2023-01-31T11:57:53","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T11:57:53","slug":"the-language-barrier-7-great-stories-of-language-troubles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lacurevillas.com\/escape-travel-journal\/our-experiences\/the-language-barrier-7-great-stories-of-language-troubles\/","title":{"rendered":"THE LANGUAGE BARRIER: 7 GREAT STORIES OF LANGUAGE TROUBLES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I recently watched a movie wherein the female protagonist went on a date at a fancy restaurant in Paris. She didn\u2019t know a single French word, so she ordered by pointing at items on the menu. Of course, she had no idea what they were and was very bewildered when the waiter brought her a plate of cooked snails.<\/span><\/p>\n

That got me thinking about how language affects travel. Since the countries I\u2019ve personally visited use English as their primary language, I\u2019ve never experienced such a fun and weird moment. To get a taste of real life experiences I reached out to some wise and well-travelled individuals. I even started to learn the language of the country I was going to, so I knew the basic words. Sometimes I turned to Ghostwriting<\/a> for help to write essays and test my knowledge. They are bloggers, veteran travellers and awesome story tellers. I asked them:<\/span><\/p>\n

Have you ever been to a country whose language you didn\u2019t know? Do you have any funny stories from trying to talk to the locals?<\/span><\/p>\n

And this is how they responded.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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JOHNNY WARD<\/strong><\/h1>\n

WRITER AND TRAVELER<\/strong> AT <\/strong>ONE STEP 4WARD<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

I\u2019m based in Thailand, and I thought it might be a good idea to learn how to tell someone they are beautiful in Thai. I learned to say \u201cKhun suay maak,\u201d and thought it was easy enough. <\/p>\n\n\n

Time and time again, I\u2019d use it with disproportionate confidence. Well, I learned that \u201csuay,\u201d when pronounced without raising the inflection at the end, means, \u201cI damn you.\u201d So I was gallivanting around nightclubs damning pretty girls left, right, and center. How wonderful.<\/p>\n

FOLLOW JOHNNY WARD<\/strong> ON<\/strong> FACEBOOK<\/a> AND<\/strong> TWITTER<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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PAUL JOHNSON<\/b><\/h1>\n

EDITOR AT<\/strong> A LUXURY TRAVEL BLOG<\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, this has happened to me plenty of times!  I do enjoy learning other languages but rarely get beyond learning the basics that just about allow me to get by. I\u2019ve dabbled with many, including studying Greek and Mandarin, but in Greenland I really struggled to even read the words which were incomprehensibly long and invariably with lots of Qs!  We were able to understand each other through basic English combined with various hand gestures.  Sadly, Greenlandic is very much in decline where I stayed (West Greenland) and in Qavak (in South Greenland) it is already regarded as extinct.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t think of many great anecdotes off hand, but did have a quiet chuckle to myself when I saw a sign outside the gents\u2019 toilets at a mountain caf\u00e9 in the Italian Alps a few years ago; there was a sign on the door that read \u201cplease leave a clear passage\u201d \u2013 I think they were referring to the doorway but I guess you can\u2019t be too sure \u2026 It was a toilet after all!<\/p>\n

FOLLOW PAUL JOHNSON<\/strong> ON<\/strong> FACEBOOK<\/a>, TWITTER<\/a>, LINKEDIN<\/a> AND<\/strong> GPLUS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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ROXANNE GENIER<\/b><\/h1>\n

PRESIDENT AND CO-FOUNDER<\/strong> OF<\/strong> LUXE IN A CITY <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

When you have traveled to as many countries as I have (over 60), you can\u2019t help but have a few funny stories related to language barriers. Getting on the wrong bus, ordering something horrific or insulting someone you wanted to praise.<\/span><\/p>\n

One story that stands out is when I toured Italy with my mother. It was her first \u201cbackpacking\u201d trip and I wanted to show her that traveling in a foreign country was as easy as in Canada. So when I booked a train ticket from Rome to<\/span> Positano<\/span><\/a>, a small coastal village on the Amalfi coast, I was as convinced as a veteran traveler.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is until I realized that our train ticket from Napoli to Positano was actually a combination of a ferry and a bus ticket! How could I have missed this in the clerk Italian explanation!?<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, I realized this 20 minutes before the departure time of the ferry and had to make my mother run 1km to a taxi stand. When we tried to explain to the taxi driver that we were in a rush to catch the boat, he understood, \u201cWe are willing to die to catch this ferry.\u201d  In rush hour, he decided to jump the median and drive in the upcoming lane at full speed, \u201cFast and the Furious\u201d style. He ran a few red lights, then accelerated up until he did an acrobatic stop two-feet away from the boat\u2019s gangway. We jumped on board with less than 15 seconds before departure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lesson learned: Be careful what you ask an Italian taxi driver! And yes, give him a good tip.<\/span><\/p>\n

FOLLOW ROXANNE GENIER ON<\/strong>  FACEBOOK<\/a>,<\/i> TWITTER<\/a>,<\/i> LINKEDIN<\/a>,<\/i> GOOGLE+<\/a> AND<\/strong> PINTEREST<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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JUSTINE TREMBICKI<\/h1>\n

PRODUCT MANAGER WORK AND TRAVEL AT <\/strong>FREE PACKERS<\/a><\/p>\n

My friends and I were travelling in the north of Thailand when we decided to stop for three days in an elephant camp in Chiang Mai. Our camp was quite remote and located near a small village, about a three-hour drive from Chiang Mai proper.<\/span><\/p>\n

One day after a hike, two of us decided to play with some kids in the village, but on the way back we got lost and we had to ask the villagers for the elephant camp. Of course, no one could speak anything but Thai, so we decided to mimic an elephant\u2026and to what appeared clearly as an elephant to us, we got the answer: \u201cVietnam?\u201d How can an elephant become Vietnam is still an unsolved mystery, but we finally found our camp with a good laugh!<\/span><\/p>\n

FOLLOW JUSTINE TREMBICKI ON<\/strong> FACEBOOK<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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NEALA SCHWARTZBERG MCCARTEN<\/h1>\n

EDITOR AT<\/strong> OFFBEAT TRAVEL<\/a><\/p>\n

I was in Shanghai, China a few years ago. Not being able to read or write anything in Mandarin, I had printed out the name and address of the hotel and brought it with me on the plane. I was grateful for this precaution when I discovered that it is folly to expect a taxi driver to understand English.<\/span><\/p>\n

From that moment on, I always had a card from the hotel to hand to the drivers.<\/span><\/p>\n

One day I witnessed the unfortunate results of someone not having that magic card. A group of us were about to pile into the taxi when we were stopped by a fellow English-only traveler. He had lost his card. His driver had no idea where to take him, and we couldn\u2019t help\u2014we couldn\u2019t tell the driver the name of the hotel since none of us spoke Chinese (which is why we *always* had that magic card). We were about to bring him with us when, with much relief, he located his own hotel card.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lesson\u2014always take a moment to make sure you have your destination written in the local language!<\/span><\/p>\n

FOLLOW NEALA SCHWARTZBERG MCCARTEN ON<\/strong> FACEBOOK<\/a> AND<\/strong> TWITTER<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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CRAIG MARTIN<\/h1>\n

CO-FOUNDER OF<\/strong> INDIE TRAVEL PODCAST<\/a><\/p>\n

We were on the train heading east from Bratislava when we decided to hop off and grab lunch in a random town. It was pretty, with large cobbled squares and decorative fa\u00e7ades. Opting for a fixed-price lunch overlooking one of the squares we managed to order using the old point-and-smile technique. No problems there.<\/span><\/p>\n

The problems started when I tried to order a drink. Now, you wouldn\u2019t think this was hard: you\u2019re in a restaurant, the food has arrived, you don\u2019t have a drink, next logical step\u2026 Drink! Right?<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t speak many languages, but I can say <\/span>wine<\/span><\/i> in quite a few. \u201cWine? Wein? Vino? Vinho? Vin? Vi?\u201d Nope. I had exhausted my European repertoire and the waitress stood with the puzzled and slightly panicked air of a deer in the headlights. So I ran my hands through the air like a goblet and began to mime wine drinking: a lift, a look, a swirl, a sniff, a sip\u2026the headlights must have been switched off because the waitress beamed with understanding.<\/span><\/p>\n

Confident with our newfound communicative bond, I looked around for something red to communicate the rough style\u2014appellation and varietal be damned\u2014and found something red. After she registered the fruit\u2019s colour she happily bustled off and I sat back, and congratulated myself on my burgeoning communication skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

The waitress returned, but she wasn\u2019t carrying a glass or a bottle. Her smile turned hesitant, but she triumphantly brought me my order: the largest bowl of freshly chopped tomatoes you\u2019ve ever seen. Well, at least I wasn\u2019t <\/span>too <\/span><\/i>thirsty.<\/span><\/p>\n

FOLLOW CRAIG MARTIN ON<\/strong> FACEBOOK<\/a>, TWITTER<\/a> AND<\/strong> GOOGLE+<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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TROY BOILEAU<\/h1>\n

TRAVELER AND SEO SPECIALIST AT<\/strong> POWERED BY SEARCH<\/a><\/p>\n

I moved to China without knowing any Mandarin. Interesting fact: Mandarin has five tones that affect the meaning of a word.<\/p>\n

You would think that similar words would be grouped together so that the tone would mean a different but similar thing, such as \u201cto have\u201d and \u201cto want\u201d being the same word with different tones. Nope. The word for four means \u201cdeath\u201d if you pronounce it wrong. This gives me the sneaking suspicion that \u201cIt\u2019s time to die\u201d was actually just supposed to mean \u201cIt\u2019s four o\u2019clock.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On another note, \u201cquestion\u201d as in \u201cCan I ask you a question?\u201d means \u201cFrench kiss\u201d if you pronounce it wrongly. Guess how I figured that out!<\/span><\/p>\n

FOLLOW TROY BOILEAU ON<\/strong> TWITTER<\/a>, LINKEDIN<\/a> AND<\/strong> GOOGLE+<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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I want to thank everyone who shared their stories with me. It was a great experience!<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, and if you\u2019re wondering, the movie I was watching where the lady had to eat a plate of snails? It still ended well when she and her date had a long walk on the<\/span> charming streets of Paris<\/span><\/a>. I mean, how could a French adventure have ended poorly?<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently watched a movie wherein the female protagonist went on a date at a fancy restaurant in Paris. She didn\u2019t know a single French word, so she ordered by pointing at items on the menu. Of course, she had no idea what they were and was very bewildered when the waiter brought her a..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":340608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9200],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lacurevillas.com\/escape-travel-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lacurevillas.com\/escape-travel-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lacurevillas.com\/escape-travel-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacurevillas.com\/escape-travel-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacurevillas.com\/escape-travel-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1411"}],"version-history":[{"count":229,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacurevillas.com\/escape-travel-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342224,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacurevillas.com\/escape-travel-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411\/revisions\/342224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacurevillas.com\/escape-travel-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lacurevillas.com\/escape-travel-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacurevillas.com\/escape-travel-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacurevillas.com\/escape-travel-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}