Very often when you decide to organize a trip, one of the most difficult obstacles to face is the ability to speak the language of the country of destination and, more generally, to be understood. It is often assumed that to travel it is enough to express itself more or less approximate using English, of which we all know the importance and diffusion, but it is not always so.
We could do the example of Budai, the protagonist of the book Ferenc Karinthy Hedge, which by mistake takes the wrong plane and ends in an unknown place, whose dense population uses a language totally different from the numerous that he knows perfectly. Letters or ideograms never seen, incomprehensible sounds and gestures that are often ignored often lead Budai to the edge of despair, to spend entire days looking for a station, airport,agency translations or an information office, because there is nothing worse than being understoodEven when you try to order a coffee.
Clearly the Hungarian writer has led to the extreme feeling of loss, frustration and anger of the protagonist, but try to imagine how you might feel in places whose alphabet is totally different from what you know and half the population does not speak English. How to do that? They're different. methods that can be used and that, probably, will allow you to travel in peace even in places that use incomprehensible idioms.
How China, for example. Where a western traveller feels unfailingly a fish of water, since not only the language, but also culture are completely different from ours. Yet for this reason I have an irresistible attraction for the Middle Country and I do not miss a chance to return to you whenever I can. If, well or badly, I can orient myself in the big cities with map to the hand, the greater difficulties I had in bars and restaurants, i.e. at the time I had to get food. A little because of the impossibility of communicating, a little because of the fact of not knowing the local dishes, more than once I found myself in the tragi-comica condition of having no idea what what I had in the dish, since he didn't even seem close to what I thought I ordered. Fortunately, however, Chinese cuisine is so good and varied, that those mysterious dishes eventually turned out to be more than edible. But if I've done well so far, I think not to take further risks, I'll decide sooner or later to do it. a Chinese course.
Surely the best thing to do if you have time and, above all, if you want to enrich your own culture and personal knowledge is to attend a Language course. An action that requires a lot of effort, especially with regard to the less common languages to study (such as Japanese, Chinese, Arabic or Russian), but which will surely allow you to travel without feeling unsuitable. Another method not to be completely unprepared is to read classics Frasari in the target language, where you will learn the basic phrases to ask for information, go to the restaurant, buy gifts and face unexpected.
If you do not want to consider any of these solutions, there are only two things left to do: applications that can simultaneously translate every phrase heard and said (but, sincerely, is it no longer nice to try to experiment a new language?) or wander in the company of a dictionary illustrated, hoping not to be finished in a place that not only has a different alphabet, but in which also objects and foods are different from those usually used. In this case, however, you should start worrying.
Article written in collaboration with FACI, agency of Milan that offers high-quality linguistic services, such as translation, language courses, interpreting, assertion and legalization.
