Your travels and languages

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Wise owl chick, Jun 1, 2014.

  1. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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    Iversen travel truly very much, globally. I know that he love to use his languages there as well. I hope that he and others will tell about their travels here.

    I don't travel so much, but soemtimes. When we travel I try to use my languages, but in real life I'm so shy that it's difficult.

    Next week I will be in London. I plan to practise my English, and to take some nice photos. I will post one here after, but I don't know if we will visit the typical places like Big Ben. I was in London before, it's veyr nice. We have visited the Tate Modern, National Gallery and had tea in the café there, we saw Big Ben and the Eye. Then we've seen some places which are not in the city centre because my parents' friends living in a place some kilometres from there but the river is there also, which is beautiful.
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  2. tastyonions

    tastyonions Member VIP member

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    I have had only one opportunity to put my languages into practice through travel, which was my five-day stay in Paris as part of my honeymoon. It turned out well except for one instance where I got rather frustrated during a situation at the train station where we were pressed for time and I resorted to English -- but I was addressing myself, as it turned out, to an attendant who did not speak the language well and had to call on someone else to help her. But the rest of the time I was quite capable of speaking to people serving at shops and restaurants, a couple we had dinner with, and even helped out a guy at Versailles when I was the only person near the end of the ticket line who spoke any French (hahaha).

    My level is significantly higher now and I would like to visit some cities where it would be much harder to rest on the crutch of English.
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  3. Cainntear

    Cainntear Active Member VIP member

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    I once helped an old French guy in a wheelchair in Dubai airport. The only problem was he was probably still going to have problems, because the guy he was trying to ask for information said he'd have to ask the staff at his designated departure gate, and my connection was leaving shortly, so I couldn't go with him to the gate....

    My favourite story is still my visit to Paris in 2001, though. My sister was working there, and I went to visit her before Christmas. Halfway up Montmartre, I stopped to change the film roll in my camera, and someone came up to me with a digital camera and asked if I would take a picture, as I looked like I knew a bit about photography. They wanted a shot with a certain old bar in the background, and they were trying to get me to frame it to look like an old painting (from the Van Gogh/Toulouse Lautrec period, but not by an artist I was familiar with). Eventually, with the aid of a bollard and a fence, I got the shot they were looking for, so they took me to a café to thank me.

    As it turned out, they were an internet startup, building a website for the tourism industry, and this picture was for their New Year's greeting card ("Interested in... art? One click, and you're there!" or something like that -- they sent me a copy when it was done). They explained the whole concept behind their site. The really interesting thing for me was that when I ran out of French, they understood my English, and when they ran out of English, I understood their French. We had a nice long conversation with very few problems of communication.

    This was before I'd properly started on my language-learning phase, and I still think that this experience was a pivotal one for me -- I doubt I would have ever had anywhere near as much confidence in subsequent languages if I hadn't felt the ease with which you can communicate across languages.
  4. Iversen

    Iversen Member VIP member

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    My first trip abroad apart from border shops in Germany ('Grenzbazar') was a familie voyage to an exotic place called Norway. By and large I understood the speech of the indigenous population, but once I met two ladies whose speech was absolutely 100% incomprehensible to me. I think I was around 12-13 years old back then.

    Then I did my first interrail tour in 1972 at the age of 18. I had one stop at Hamburg Hautpbahnhof, where it turned out that my German was sufficient even though I had learnt it from TV and a teacher who practiced genuine grammar-translation. After that I went by night train to the Netherlands, with a first stop in Amersfoort, where milk was sold in thin soft plastic bags - not practical. And after that Amsterdam and Rotterdam, followed by Antwerpen - where I had booked a place in the local youth hostel, but couldn't find it. Instead I found the a youth hostel in Brussels, close to the Gare du Nord. The guy at the reception declared that he spoke all languages. It may not be good tone to break down the selfconfidence of polyglots, but I couldn't resist trying out his knowledge of Danish. After that we spoke in English. My Dutch was almost non-existent at that time. I continued through France without major problems (after all I had learned French in the 'lycée' back home), but then I arrived an early morning at the Stazione Garibaldi in Milano - and I didn't even know that they had such a station- so I ended up in Cimeterio Monumentale, where I had to ask for help in Italian - and at that point I had only learnt the language from books and hardly ever heard it in its spoken form, but somehow I understood the explanation and found the local Duomo and the Museo di Storia Naturale and a bar with granita di mente. I also survived Firenze, Roma and Venezia - although I arrived in the middle of the night at Santa Lucia di Venezia due to an overzealous train employee who moved me from a slow train to faster one. And then I continued to Salzburg and Wien, took a long leg to Paris in the train "Mozart" (which became a train with supplement as soon as it passed the French border), from there through Strasbourg to Köln in Germany and up to Düsseldorf, where I had to admit that I had used all my money so I had to return back home after just 3 weeks abroad.

    And as Kuikentje suggets I have travelled a couple of times since then.
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2014
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  5. Stelle

    Stelle Active Member VIP member

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    I haven't travelled extensively compared to many, but the travelling that I have done has shaped me as a person. Until my 30s, I never learned a language for travel, although I did pick up bits and pieces of other languages while overseas. Now, my language learning is hugely motivated by travel. Of course I love languages, but I don't want to learn them "just because". I like being able to use what I learn.

    My first overseas trip was a one-month exchange to Brazil at 18 years old. Sadly, I didn't learn Portuguese before going, but I picked up quite a bit while I was there. The local children were fascinated by us, and hung around all day. They didn't speak any English, so I had to learn some simple Portuguese. I don't remember any of it, sadly. Portuguese may or may not be a language that I learn in the future.

    Then, in my early 20s, a friend and I spent 6 months backpacking through Eastern and Southern Africa. I learned some phrases in kiSwahili, and still find myself wanting to use one now and then - especially "pole pole", which means "slowly, slowly". Since there aren't a lot of people here who speak the language, I don't think that I'll ever learn kiSwahili, unless I spend at least 3 months in Eastern Africa. It's a beautiful language though!

    Last year I started learning Spanish in preparation for hiking the Camino de Santiago in Spain. By the time I went to Spain (in March of this year), I was able to communicate. My Dad and I hiked 800 km in 6 weeks, and my Spanish was a HUGE advantage. I think that my trip was much richer because of it. Spanish is a life-long language for me.

    I have a long-term goal of travelling at least 3 months per year, but I'm not there yet! I'd love to choose a country to visit every year, spend a few months acquiring the basics at home, and then be able to have simple conversations while overseas. But I think that my limit for long-term maintenance is 5 languages - which means that I can only choose one more!
  6. Fasulye

    Fasulye Member VIP member

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    I visit my friends in the Netherlands perhaps 3 times a year and I speak only Dutch there. Once a year I take part in an Esperanto-weekend also in the Netherlands, where I speak about 50 % Esperanto and 50 % Dutch. And I visit my family in NRW, Germany, perhaps two times a year. My spoken foreign language practise occurs mostly on Skype and this is very intensive. I am used to not being mobile. In the 1990's I stayed as a guest in French families in France for two weeks each and I had the total French immersion there. I also visited Kopenhagen, Denmark, twice for a week each time.

    Fasulye
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2014
  7. Penelope

    Penelope New Member

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    I have only been to France and Italy, but several times over the past decade. I have always used french and italian, along with some english of course.

    But for me travel works backwards as well: we have so many tourists in Greece, from all over the world, you may hear any language you can imagine, at any given time. Just today, walking around the market, I heard hebrew and turkish by two separate groups of tourists. Didn't understand a word of course :D but after this I can safely say the summer has arrived!
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  8. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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    Greetings from London :)

    We arrived yesterday.
  9. garyb

    garyb Member

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    I try to travel to places where I can practise my languages at least once per year, especially since going to the Continent is pretty cheap and easy from here, something that I often don't fully realise and take advantage of.

    I've visited France quite a few times. Unfortunately for me, each time I go there, more and more people seem to speak better and better English, so despite my French having improved it's become less useful. But I have a few great memories: an all-night conversation at a French music festival, chatting with a waitress in Paris and getting a free crêpe, and wandering around a village going into shops trying to get help printing a ticket. My general experience has been that if your level is decent, service staff are more than happy to speak French with you, although people in social situations are more likely to insist on English; the Parisians and French in general are very kind and helpful despite their reputation.

    I spent two weeks in Italy last year and another week this year. I had a great time meeting up and partying with some of my friends over there, especially in Bologna, perhaps my favourite city, and I've used Italian for most of my needs.

    I've not been to Spain since I started learning Spanish, but I certainly plan to! Maybe next year. I'm also keen to see Latin America at some point in the next few years.
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  10. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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    LOL!!!!!! hahahaa. You're funny :)


    A couple of million times!!!!!


    Greece seems beautiful. The language sound little bit like Spanish I find. For sure I would like to visit Greece.


    I am still in London. the British food should be terrible and absolutly yuck, but I like it, in effect I love it haha. I've eaten too much because it's so delicious, especially the Indian food LOL. I like the tea and cakes as well.
  11. newyorkeric

    newyorkeric New Member

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    My family never travels. Even now my mom hardly leaves a 10-mile radius around her house. The first time I traveled overseas was for an exchange program to Italy during college. During the next 10 years or so I visited Mexico, London, Italy, and Slovenia.

    I am very fortunate to live in SE Asia now and am relatively close to a lot of interesting places. I am also lucky that when I travel for work I usually have a lot of free time to sightsee. I have been to Hong Kong (twice), Kyoto (twice), Toyko, Macau, Bangkok, Phuket, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka (many times), and Taipei (three times). I also have been to Europe several times though it isn't as convenient: London, Paris, Netherlands, Stockholm, and Milan.

    I don't usually cram any language learning before going somewhere. I am a slow learner and it wouldn't stick. But of course I love to listen to the language around me, and I always try to visit a bookstore or two even if I can't understand anything in it.

    I plan on going to China this year and maybe Cambodia. On my hit list is Vietnam and South Korea.
    Last edited: Jun 6, 2014
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  12. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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    I promised that I would post a photo of my visit to London.

    here are three photos, we have visited a very nice gardening shop. The animals and birds are cute, then they have some pink wheelbarrows hahahahaha

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
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  13. Pierre-Emmanuel

    Pierre-Emmanuel New Member

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    In the summer of 2013 I visited Germany for the first time and I managed to interact with natives solely in German, which made my trip much more exciting. I had only been learning the language for 6 months at the time but everyone was very patient with me and I did not let mistakes or a few awkward exchanges deter me from using the language. Almost everyone was willing to speak German with me but I recall pretending a few times not to speak any English in order to keep the conversation in German :)

    Stelle - I also walked the Camino de Santiago (the Camino del Norte in my case) a few weeks ago, from Irún to Santiago de Compostella. I agree that speaking Spanish makes the experience much more enriching - most pilgrims I've met weren't able to hold a conversation in English. I also got to speak German with pilgrims from Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Poland. It was quite an amazing experience :) I actually wrote a blog post about the different languages and nationalities I encountered on the Camino de Santiago.
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  14. Stelle

    Stelle Active Member VIP member

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    We walked the Frances. It wasn't at all busy most of the way, except for the last 100 km. It was a wonderful experience! I'd love to walk the Norte one day. But I think that - if I do decide to walk the Camino again - I'll start with Le Puy, in France.

    I spoke 3 languages when I went to Spain - English, French and Spanish - and between the three, I was able to communicate with *almost* everyone I met. If I wanted to talk to everyone, I'd have to add Italian and Korean to my language repertoire. ;)

    I enjoyed your blog post about languages along the way! I wrote a post about using Spanish on the camino as well:

    http://www.tobefluent.com/2014/05/18/home-from-the-camino-de-santiago/
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  15. hrhenry

    hrhenry Member VIP member

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    On a trip to Cape Town, I actually used quite a bit of Italian. I stayed in a somewhat small B&B, and one of the vacationers was Italian. The first night I was there, the power went out across the city, so we basically sat around the pool and talked all night. I also got to use my Portuguese there on a day trip to wine country. The bus was full of Brazilians. They thought it was odd that I spoke peninsular Portuguese, rather than Brazilian, because I was from the US.

    On a somewhat related note, I've lived in both Mexico and Spain. While living in Mexico, my accent (and vocabulary) was quite Mexican. Later, when I moved to Spain, my accent flattened a bit, and I modified my vocabulary accordingly. Now back in the US, most Spanish speakers here find it odd that my Spanish isn't "Mexican". Not that it's really peninsular now (I think it's just flat), but people here tell me I sound Spanish.

    R.
    ==
  16. biTsar

    biTsar Active Member VIP member

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