The most useful foreign language phrases aren’t what you think

To ensure warm engagement with locals in a foreign country, learning and using the most basic lingo is a great investment of your time. I’m not talking about the likes of “My name is …” and “How many siblings do you have?” These classroom phrases are useless when you’re trying to clarify a hotel price, ask directions to the nearest village, or buy a kilogram of pomegranates from a Greek market. And while translation apps are handy, they lack spontaneity.

My advice? Ditch the in-flight movie and get your head and mouth around the following words and expressions; they’ll cover you in most day-to-day situations.

Pleasantries and days of the week

“Hello”, “goodbye”, “please” and “thank you” are no-brainers. As are “no worries/you’re welcome”, “enjoy your meal/good appetite” and “cheers!”. But also nail the days of the week (great for establishing entry times, hotel availability and bus schedules).

Numbers count

Learn the numbers one to 10 (at the very least) and the question “How much?”. These are useful for purchases, reservations and telephone numbers. Carry a pen and paper and ask others to write the prices of rooms, entry and more. Note: smartphone notes function can be difficult for some, especially if it’s a foreign keyboard.

Forget mastering phrases or grammar – stick to words

Babble away like a baby: Use. Individual. Words. Pointing to, say, a pile of fruit and requesting “That! Three! Please!” is way more efficient than grappling with the grammatical construction of “I would like three apples, please”.

Driving directions

Show a phrasebook to a local and ask them to pronounce the words “right”, “left” and “straight ahead”. You’ll hear these frequently, especially when asking for directions.

Slang it!

Swot up on contemporary slang words for the likes of “cool!” and “fun!” from a language phrase book.

Beware of “false friends”

“False friends” (or “false cognates”) is when a word in say, English, sounds like a word in another language but has a very different meaning and consequences. Once, while backpacking around Bolivia, I stressed that I was “embarazada” to an elderly man when he proffered his seat on a long-distance bus journey. I’d declared I was “pregnant”, not embarrassed. To illustrate my robustness, and eventually convince him to reclaim his precious seat, I patted my (flat) stomach and drew figures on paper.

Resort to the international dialect

I recall how a former Lonely Planet editor, Will Gourlay, signed his emails in the language of his guidebook titles. Now a Middle East analyst, Gourlay has increased his repertoire of foreign phrases. He says that language is not only handy in unexpected places, but it creates a sense of fun. Such as when he was in a small village in Xinjiang, China, and “haggled” for a hat in Turkish with a Kirghiz market seller, who understood the language. He halved the rate, only to (purposefully) barter the price back up to the original. The astonished seller cried with mirth.

For you can always resort to laughter. It’s the universal dialect, after all.